The limit on Chinese ownership could end up being even lower, it added. It remains unclear exactly how the Trump administration will define what technology is “industrially significant”.
Neither the Treasury Department, which is drawing up the rules, and the White House comment on the development, a news agency reported.
The measures are part of the same broad US move to confront Beijing over its trade practices as the tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods that the Trump administration detailed earlier this month.
Beijing has vowed to strike back in equal measure against the tariffs, the first wave of which will take effect on July 6.
The US government says the flurry of measures against China were a response to the theft of American intellectual property and pressure US companies face to hand over technology to Chinese firms in order to do business in the country.
Chinese officials have repeatedly rejected the US allegations, accusing Washington of making unilateral and protectionist moves.
