The US Treasury department said on Monday that an executive order issued by Donald Trump banning investments in Chinese companies with suspected military ties would apply to subsidiaries, embracing a tougher interpretation of the president’s crackdown.

The clarification followed a heated debate within the Trump administration about the application of the executive order signed last month, with the State department and Pentagon pushing for more sweeping rules to constrain US investment in Chinese companies with links to the People’s Liberation Army.

In a question and answer section on the executive order published on Monday by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which sets US sanctions, the Trump administration said that the investment ban would apply to “any subsidiary of a Communist Chinese military company”.