The President of the United States continued the China securities-investment national emergency in a notice dated 3 November 2026, published in the Federal Register on 5 November. The one-year continuation beyond 12 November preserves the framework for restrictions on trading securities of designated Chinese companies. Its transatlantic significance lies in how American investors and financial intermediaries participate in portfolios managed outside the United States.

What the November renewal preserves

Key facts

  • The emergency began on 12 November 2020; the latest notice continues it for one year beyond 12 November 2026.
  • Executive Order 14032, signed on 3 June 2021, reshaped the securities restrictions and added surveillance-technology grounds.
  • OFAC says the restrictions cover US investors in foreign funds holding covered securities, regardless of the securities' share of the fund.
  • For subsequently listed entities, the framework uses separate 60-day prohibition and 365-day divestment clocks.

The notice explains the administration's security rationale: US capital can support companies linked to China's military-industrial complex, while surveillance technology can facilitate repression. Those are the presidential findings underlying the measure. The operative step this November is continuation of the existing emergency; the notice contains no new company designations or replacement trading rules. Presidential notice

The legal machinery has several layers. The emergency supplies the continuing national-security framework. The executive order defines prohibited transactions and authorises Treasury determinations. The Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List, or NS-CMIC List, identifies covered entities. OFAC guidance then explains how those rules apply to funds, intermediaries and existing holdings. Renewing the first layer preserves that machinery without restarting every deadline attached to a previous listing.

Executive Order 14032 follows the investor across borders

The June 2021 order prohibits specified purchases and sales by a “United States person”. That definition includes US citizens and lawful permanent residents, entities organised under US law including their foreign branches, and people in the United States. A transaction's currency or exchange location does not by itself take it outside the framework: the definition of publicly traded securities covers exchange and over-the-counter trading in any jurisdiction.

That distinction matters to a fund distributed from London or continental Europe. Its place of incorporation and the location of its trading desk answer different questions from the eligibility of its investors. In FAQ 861, OFAC says US persons are prohibited from investing in US or foreign funds holding covered publicly traded securities, regardless of the securities' share of the underlying fund or index. A small portfolio weighting therefore supplies no general exemption.

The exposure can also be indirect. OFAC's FAQ 860 lists derivatives, warrants, American and global depositary receipts, exchange-traded funds, index funds and mutual funds as examples, to the extent they meet the order's publicly traded-security definition. The practical mechanism is exposure to the covered securities, rather than simply ownership of an ordinary share in a Chinese company. That is why portfolio composition and investor access have to be considered together.

The list, the trading window and the ability to hold

The scope remains entity-specific. OFAC's FAQ 899 uses exact name matching to the NS-CMIC List. FAQ 857 says a subsidiary is covered only if it is itself listed or identified in the order's annex; OFAC's 50% ownership rule does not apply to entities listed solely under this programme. This separates the programme from the property-blocking model familiar in other US sanctions regimes. Other applicable sanctions still require their own assessment. OFAC guidance

For entities subsequently added to the list, the guidance distinguishes the prohibition taking effect after 60 days from the permission for transactions solely to divest during the relevant 365-day period. Those clocks run from the relevant listing, not from this annual emergency renewal. An old holding consequently cannot be assessed by treating 12 November as a fresh universal exit deadline.

Holding and trading also have different treatment. In FAQ 1046, released on 1 June 2022, OFAC says US persons are not required to divest and may continue holding securities after the divestment period. Purchases or sales to divest after that period require authorisation. FAQ 1047 permits receipt of cash dividends and stock splits, while treating dividend reinvestments into covered securities as prohibited purchases. A portfolio can therefore contain a position that may remain held while its trading and reinvestment options are constrained. OFAC FAQs 1046-1047

Why European managers and US service providers need different tests

The rules preserve room for some cross-border services. Under FAQ 902, US persons may advise or manage a non-US fund buying or selling covered securities when the underlying transaction otherwise complies, including the conditions concerning ultimate US-person benefit and evasion. FAQ 903 applies a similar distinction to US persons working for non-US employers. The nationality of an employee alone does not answer whether every transaction of the foreign employer is prohibited.

OFAC also distinguishes custody and settlement from prohibited investing. FAQ 863 permits supporting services insofar as they are not supplied to US persons in connection with prohibited purchases or sales. FAQ 1048 says prohibited transactions must be rejected and reported within ten business days; this programme does not itself require financial institutions to block them. Those distinctions affect the decisions made at investor onboarding, portfolio selection and transaction processing. OFAC guidance

The next confirmed milestone is the emergency's continuation beyond 12 November 2026. Any additional Treasury designation, licence or change to the rules would be a separate action. For transatlantic asset management, the substantive result is continuity: the existing test follows covered exposure and US participation through foreign funds, while preserving specific permissions for holding and servicing securities.