What made the strategy so brilliant was that the Chinese were flying in under the radar. When they bought an entire company, it triggered an official review in Washington, from a little-known, little-understood group called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. It could recommend that the president block any sale on national-security grounds. And both Obama and Trump did so, several times. But there were no rules about taking a minority stake in a company, which would give the investors an early, privileged look at the technology.
