For the third time in as many months, I’m compelled to inform you that Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order restricting investment in certain sectors of the Chinese economy.

This has been in the works for years, and in the news since February, when I first mentioned it.

The idea, apparently, is to unveil the curbs just prior to next month’s G7 gathering in Japan, leaving America’s allies little choice but to at least endorse the spirit of the restrictions, even if no other advanced economy is prepared to implement their own version of the limits.

As far as I can tell, the details of the order are broadly unchanged from initial reports. The new program will impact private equity and VC funding for AI, quantum computing and semiconductors, among other areas. Some investments will be banned completely.

Last month, after reviewing reports provided to US lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal described “a new regulatory system” designed to hinder US investment with the potential to threaten national security. Beijing is sure to characterize the restrictions as a thinly-veiled attempt to stymie the country’s development.

As obvious as it may be that Biden is using national security as an excuse to derail China on the path to developing advanced technology, Beijing would, can and does do the same thing. This comes back to the argument some China hawks make with regard to TikTok: If China can restrict domestic access to the Western version of the internet without having to explain itself, how is it unfair for the US to ban one app which arguably does more psychological harm to the country’s youth than it contributes to their joie de vivre?

In a marquee speech Thursday, Janet Yellen attempted to delineate between economic competition and national security. “These national security actions are not designed for us to gain a competitive economic advantage, or stifle China’s economic and technological modernization,” she said, in remarks prepared for Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. “A growing China that plays by international rules is good for the United States and the world [but] healthy economic competition… is only sustainable if that competition is fair.”

In addition to the spy balloon fiasco, the US remains very concerned about the prospect of Beijing providing the Kremlin with weapons for the war in Ukraine. Intelligence leaks suggest Russia at one point believed Moscow had indeed secured an agreement on the provision of lethal aid. Xi, while in Russia for a state visit last month, made it clear that the two countries remain very close and that the leadership rapport is highly cordial. Still, he didn’t promise Putin everything the Kremlin wants or even everything the Kremlin needs. Not that anyone would know if he had.

“China’s no limits partnership and support for Russia is a worrisome indication that it is not serious about ending the war,” Yellen warned. She went on to emphasize the “paramount importance” of national security, and pledged to protect the interests of America’s “allies and partners.” The US, she said, will continue to “communicate to the PRC our concerns about its behavior.”

The Party doesn’t appreciate the condescension implicit in such statements, but then again, it’s always difficult to escape the irony inherent in authoritarian states where “might” everywhere and always “makes right” complaining about the US exercising its hard and soft power. Xi’s pretensions to peace and multilateral cooperation sound good, but are difficult to take seriously coming from a dictator. He doesn’t describe himself as a dictator, but China is avowedly not a democracy, and not even the Party makes much of an effort when it comes to pretending the country’s political system is anything other than one-man rule these days, so what other description is there?

It’s possible Beijing will pretend to be especially aggrieved at the new curbs, but as I’ve repeatedly emphasized, this is nothing new. In 2022, the White House announced new US export restrictions aimed at curtailing China’s capacity to advance critical domestic tech initiatives, and in many ways, the Biden administration’s efforts are an extension of various Trump-era initiatives, only without Trump’s flagrantly transactional approach.

As for sundry narratives predicting the decline of US hegemony in all its various manifestations, Yellen had a message for the naysayers and would-be usurpers: “Pronouncements of US decline have been around for decades. They have always been proven wrong.”