The US government on Wednesday put a dozen Chinese companies on its trade blacklist for national security and foreign policy concerns, citing in some cases their help developing the Chinese military’s quantum computing efforts.
Several entities and individuals from China and Pakistan were also added to the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List for contributing to Pakistan’s nuclear activities or ballistic missile program.
The latest US action on Chinese companies comes amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington over the status of Taiwan and trade issues.
In total, 27 new entities were added to the list from China, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement that the new listings would help prevent US technology from supporting the development of Chinese and Russian “military advancement and activities of non-proliferation concern like Pakistan’s unsafeguarded nuclear activities or ballistic missile program.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington charged that the US “uses the catch-all concept of national security and abuses state power to suppress and restrict Chinese enterprises in all possible means.
“China is firmly opposed to that,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu (劉鵬宇) said.
He said the US should “follow the spirit” of a virtual meeting last week between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and “meet China halfway instead of going further down the wrong path.”
Hangzhou Zhongke Microelectronics Co (杭州中科微電子), Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co (湖南國科微電子), New H3C Semiconductor Technologies Co (新華三半導體技術 ), Xi’an Aerospace Huaxun Technology Co (西安航天華迅科技) and Yunchip Microelectronics Co (雲芯微電子) were placed on the department’s entity list for their “support of the military modernization of the People’s Liberation Army,” the department said.
It also added Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale (合肥微尺度物理科學國家實驗室), QuantumCTek Co Ltd (科大國盾量子) and Shanghai QuantumCTek Co Ltd (上海國盾量子) to the list for “acquiring and attempting to acquire US-origin items in support of military applications.”
The eight Chinese firms were listed to prevent US technology from being used to help China develop quantum computing applications for its military.
The department wants to stop the Chinese military from developing its counter-stealth technology, which could include equipment like advanced radars, and counter-submarine applications, such as undersea sensors.
The action also blocks US material from being used to help China break encryption or develop unbreakable encryption, the department said.
Suppliers to companies on the entity list will need to apply for a license before they can sell to them, which is likely to be denied.
Separately, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology was added to the commerce department’s military end user list, but the listing did not provide additional information other than it had produced military products.
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