WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s directive barring U.S. investments in Chinese companies linked by Washington to China’s military is unlikely to deal the firms a serious blow, experts said, due to its limited scope, uncertainty about the stance of the incoming Biden administration and already-scant holdings by U.S. funds.The executive order, first reported by Reuters, was signed by Trump on Thursday as he sought to curb access by American investors to 31 Chinese firms labeled by the Pentagon as “owned or controlled” by China’s military. The affected companies included China Telecom and China Unicom, which is affiliated with China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd. Their shares declined roughly 8% and 7% respectively on Friday, as investors fretted about potential grave damage to the companies, and have edged down further since. But there were limits built into Trump’s directive. The order offered the possibility of licenses to circumvent the restrictions and stopped short of “blocking” the companies, a tougher sanctioning tool that would include freezing assets and banning all transactions with Americans. It officially goes into effect on Jan. 11. But the directive does not ban new purchases of the securities until November 2021 and allows U.S. investors to continue to own or sell shares they already hold in the targeted companies, raising further questions about its impact. “This will likely deter investment in the companies, but is not likely to inflict the kind of critical injury, as well as unintended collateral damage, that would result from a full blocking of the companies,” said Matthew Tuchband, a Washington-based attorney with the firm Arent Fox and a former Treasury Department official.