Chinese tech companies need to disappear for a while

For Chinese technology companies, January can’t come soon enough.

Giants from Huawei Technologies Co. to TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. can have no doubt left: There will be no let-up in the Trump administration’s efforts to entrench its China policy before leaving office. That’s undermining hopes that a change of U.S. president might lead to an easing in the technology cold war.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to push ahead with a plan that could lead to the delisting of Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges is just the latest salvo. Last week, Trump issued an executive order barring investments in Chinese companies that are owned or controlled by the military. Since the Nov. 6 election, the State Department also slapped sanctions on more people accused of undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.