The move shows how effective are White House imposed restrictions on the access of the Chinese military to Western sources of financing.

The eight groups to be removed from FTSE indices ranged in market value from $3bn to $66bn. The list also includes: China National Chemical Engineering Company; satellite manufacturer China Spacesat; the China Nuclear Engineering Corporation; computer server maker Dawning Information Industry Group; and locomotive maker CRRC.

The eight have direct and indirect links to the China military industry sector and are a vehicle of technology transfer for the Beijing foreign intelligence agency.

Widely held companies such as China Mobile and China National Offshore Oil Corporation did not appear in the list of companies FTSE Russell said it would remove from its indices.

A FTSE spokesman said its treatment of the companies remains under review in other indexes, including its FTSE China and China A products, considered China domestic indexes.

Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research for CFRA, said so far the removals would seem to have a limited impact on most U.S. investors, since few large Chinese companies have been restricted. We would expect all index providers to ultimately remove some Chinese securities in an effort to comply with the U.S. restrictions, he stated.

Rival index provider MSCI Inc had previously said its products would “reflect any necessary changes” depending on U.S. law.

The executive order, published last month by the White House, barred U.S. investors from buying securities of the blacklisted firms, starting in November 2021.