Princeton University based in New Jersey, the US Photo: IC

US public institutions such as universities will not restructure their investment portfolios, even though they are under pressure from the US government to divest their Chinese holdings, industry insiders told the Global Times Wednesday. 

"Unless US stock exchanges come up with rules restricting Chinese companies' listings, American politicians' empty talk will have no material impact," said a Shanghai-based employee of one of the Big Four international accounting firms. 

The US government is again mounting pressure on local investors to take action against Chinese companies listed there. 

According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, a US government official has written a letter to the boards of directors of American universities and colleges, urging them to divest any Chinese holdings in their endowments.

In the letter, the official warned of the "likely outcome" that enhanced listing standards imposed by the US government would lead to a "wholesale delisting" of Chinese companies from US stock exchanges by the end of next year. 

The Global Times contacted several US universities, including Purdue University and Princeton University; none had replied as of press time.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press conference Wednesday that deliberately erecting barriers does not serve the interests of China or the US capital markets. 

"We urge the US government to provide a fair, non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies that invest or have business operations in the US," Zhao said. 

Economists say that US institutions are unlikely to withdraw investments from Chinese companies hastily, though the warning is a signal that the US is mulling further crackdown on Chinese companies listed in the US. 

Thomas Yeung, vice dean of the Futian School of Finance and a financial expert based in Hong Kong, said that the US university endowment foundations will "watch the political winds", but they are unlikely to restructure their investment portfolios. 

"Surely US university endowment investment managers will face pressure, but it's questionable if they will voluntarily give up the Chinese market and the high return rate of Chinese companies just because of the new policies, as this will be a violation of their fiduciary duties," he said. 

The accounting firm employee said that the US move to ratchet up pressure on US-listed Chinese companies may affect some companies' confidence about launching IPOs in the US, but not foreign investors' confidence in Chinese firms. 

However, experts are debating the ultimate fate of Chinese companies listed in the US. 

"They should prepare for the possibility that a US government crackdown could come all of a sudden, such as a presidential executive order coercing them to delist," Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times.