China’s New Tech Weapon: Dragging Its Feet on Global Merger Approvals

The U.S. encouraged China to set up a robust antitrust regime. Now, Beijing is holding back its required green light for mergers that involve American companies as a technology war with Washington intensifies.

Chinese regulators recently have slowed down their merger reviews of a number of proposed acquisitions by U.S. companies, including Intel Corp.’s $5.2 billion takeover of Israel-based Tower Semiconductor Ltd. and chip maker MaxLinear Inc.’s $3.8 billion purchase of Silicon Motion Technology of Taiwan, according to people close to the process.