The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities.
The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.”
Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization.
Photo: Reuters
“We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said.
The entities targeted include 11 based in China and one in Taiwan, accused of engaging in the development of advanced AI, supercomputers and high-performance AI chips for China-based users “with close ties to the country’s military-industrial complex.”
They include the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (北京人工智能研究院) and subsidiaries of information technology giant Inspur Group (浪潮集團).
Others were included for “contributions to unsafeguarded nuclear activities” or ballistic missile programs.
The aim is to prevent US technologies and goods from being misused for activities like high-performance computing, hypersonic missiles and military aircraft training, US Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler said.
Two entities in Iran and China were also added to the list for seeking to procure US items for Iran’s defense industry and drone programs, the commerce department said.
Beijing condemned the blacklisting of its firms, accusing Washington of “weaponizing” trade and technology in a “typical act of hegemonism.”
“We urge the US side to stop generalizing the concept of national security... and stop abusing all kinds of sanctions lists to unreasonably suppress Chinese enterprises,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said at a daily news conference.
China would take “necessary measures” to defend its firms’ rights, Guo added.
Meanwhile, Taiwan would investigate why the Taiwanese subsidiary of Inspur Group, China’s leading cloud computing and big data service provider, was added to the trade blacklist, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday.
Inspur Taiwan, located in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), is also known by the names Number Media Ltd (數字雲端) and Inspur Taiwan — R&D Center (台灣浪潮 －研發中心).
The ministry would “quickly investigate” the company’s situation, including what US regulations it is accused of breaching, Kuo said.
If the company acted illegally, the government would impose penalties, he said.
The government has been working with companies to confirm the end user of their products, and ensure that they are not inadvertently breaching trade rules, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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