On August 06, 2020, President Donald Trump, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) 1977 and the National Emergencies Act (NEA) 1976, signed two orders forcing Tencent Holdings Ltd., (Tencent) - the parent company of the messaging app WeChat, and ByteDance Ltd., (ByteDance) - the parent company of the entertainment app TikTok to find a US buyer to transfer all of its assets within 45 days (which was extended to 90 days by the order issued on August 14, 2020) or to cease operations in the US.

According to the two orders, the reasons for the above requests stem from concerns of the US administration, or more specifically, President Donal Trump, that Tencent Holdings and ByteDance "would threaten to impair the national security of the United States" by transmitiing American's information to the Chinese authorities in Beijing through their registration to use WeChat and TikTok, and more importantly, fear that investors from China can acquire American companies by mergers and accquisitions transactions - also known as M&A in the business field, through intermediaries who are Tencent and ByteDance.

Like the US, Vietnam also concerns about M&A transaction conducted by foreign investors that may have nagative impacts on national security. Therefore, the Law on Investment 2020 (passed on June 17, 2020) have added regulations to ensure protection of national security such as requiring foreign investors who contribute capital to, acquire shares, acquire contribution capital of economic organizations that possess Land use right certificates for areas in bolder islands, communes, wards and towns; coastal communes; in other areas affecting national defense and security to conduct procedures for registration of capital contribution, share purchase, or contribution capital purchase of such economic organizations before changing theirs members or shareholders. This is a new and positvely-acclaimed regulation that creates a basic for transparentizing procedures and authority of the Investment Registration Authority with respect to location criteria for foreign investors.

However, the authority to reject the investment registration of foreign investors of the Investment Registration Authority in Vietnam when the project is not in accordance with the laws can still be considered "more friendly and more peaceful ”when compared to the measures that President Trump and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) are imposing on ByteDance.

To see how tightly and strictly the US controls the M&A transactions which are conducted by foreign investors and threatens the national security of foreign investors, readers can refer to the Order on addressing the threat posed by TikTok dated 6 August 2020 [1] and the Order related to the Musical.ly acquisition. by ByteDance dated 14 August 2020 [2], in the links below:

[1]https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/

[2]https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/EO-on-TikTok-8-14-20.pdf