US adds 28 Chinese organizations to its trade blacklist

Washington has placed 28 Chinese organizations on a trade blacklist for allegedly violating US sanctions by exporting technology for nuclear and missile programmes to third countries or acquiring banned products for China's military.

The commerce department placed the groups on its "entity list," which forbids American corporations from supplying them with American-made technology.

Several of the corporations were placed on the blacklist for allegedly assisting Russia's military effort in Ukraine and for giving technology to an Iranian entity that had previously been subject to US sanctions.

BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions, subsidiaries of BGI Group, the largest genomics research organization in China, are among the most recognizable Chinese targets. The United States is growing increasingly concerned that China may use organizations like BGI to get Americans' genetic data.

This is the latest effort by the Biden administration to punish Chinese groups who allegedly violated export control regulations by giving or attempting to send technology that would aid the People's Liberation Army in its fast military modernization.

The blacklistings are also a response to a variety of other activities, such as supplying Pakistan with nuclear and missile technologies and Myanmar and other Chinese groups with surveillance technology that facilitates repression and human rights violations.

"When we act to stand against proliferators, oppose military aggression in the case of Russia and the People’s Republic of China military modernisation, and protect and advance human rights, we are putting . . . [US] values into action and enhancing our shared security," said Don Graves, deputy commerce secretary.

Among the targeted companies was Loongson Technology, a chipmaker founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government-backed organization. The underlying technology of Loongson is seen as China's answer to Intel and Arm in chip design.

Suzhou Centec Communications, a chip design company, was also targeted by the Commerce Department for acquiring or seeking to acquire US technology for the PLA, as well as for supporting other groups already on the entity list.

Centec designed chips for 5G network equipment, a market once dominated by Huawei in China, as well as processors for datacentres that serve Chinese supercomputing.

The United States has also blacklisted 4Paradigm Technology, a company that specializes in artificial intelligence, and Inspur Group, a company that focuses on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data, for assisting the PLA's modernization efforts.

The addition of Chinese firms to the list, which has been used to target large groups such as Huawei, comes as relations between Washington and Beijing hit a new low following the flight of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States.

Senior U.S. officials have warned over the past two weeks that China is considering giving Russia ammunition to help its war in Ukraine.

Thursday, the United States also blacklisted DMT Trading, a Belarusian corporation, and Neotec Semiconductor, a Taiwanese company, for assisting Russia in bolstering its defense industry.

Six firms, including Galaxy Electronics and Arttronix International, were added to the list for delivering or attempting to supply technology to Pasna, an Iranian organization that is on a separate list of sanctioned companies maintained by the Treasury Department.

The Treasury asserts that Pasna has previously attempted to acquire anti-submarine warfare and ocean surveillance-related metals.

By fLEXI tEAM