The administration of US President Joe Biden on Thursday added 37 companies to a trade blacklist, including three Taiwanese firms, units of Chinese genetics company BGI (華大基因) and Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur (浪潮).
The US Department of Commerce, which oversees export controls, added BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions (Hong Kong) over allegations that the units pose a “significant risk” by contributing to Chinese government surveillance.
“The actions of these entities concerning the collection and analysis of genetic data present a significant risk of diversion to China’s military programs,” the department said.
Photo: Reuters
Reuters previously reported that BGI was collecting genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations and that it collaborates with the Chinese military.
Also listed was BGI’s forensics subsidiary, Forensics Genomics International.
The department accused Inspur of acquiring and attempting to acquire US goods to support China’s military modernization efforts.
The companies and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The department added 26 other Chinese entities to the list — which makes it difficult for targeted companies to receive shipments of US goods from suppliers.
The additions included several entities that the department said were supplying or attempting to supply a sanctioned entity in Iran, and three firms in Taiwan, Russia and Belarus that it said were contributing to the Russian military.
It also targeted companies in China and Myanmar for breaches of human rights, and went after companies in China and Pakistan for contributing to ballistic missile programs of concern, including in Pakistan.
“When we identify entities that pose a national security or foreign policy concern for the United States, we add them to the Entity List to ensure we can scrutinize their transactions,” US Assistant Secretary of Commerce Thea Kendler said in a statement.
The latest additions to the trade black list are likely to further escalate the ill will between Washington and Beijing, which have been locked in a technology spat for years.
Tensions have been especially high since the Biden administration last month shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had crossed a broad swath of the US.
“We cannot allow our adversaries to misuse and abuse technology to commit human rights abuses and other acts of oppression,” US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod said. “That’s why we’re committed to preventing bad actors from siphoning off our technology. We will take an all-tools approach to combat this threat.”
The department in 2020 added two units of BGI Group, the world’s largest genomics company, to its economic blacklist over allegations it conducted genetic analyzes used to further the repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
BGI denied allegations of wrongdoing at the time.
Taiwanese firm Neotec Semiconductor Ltd (新德科技) was added to the blacklist, as the company significantly contributes to “Russia’s military, or defense industrial base,” the Bureau of Foreign Trade said in a statement yesterday.
The Hsinchu-based company exports mainly chips and electric goods overseas, it added.
Neotec did not apply for a permit to export strategic high-tech products to Russia, the statement said.
China and Hong Kong are the major export destinations for Neotec customs information showed, the statement said.
The bureau is tracking the destinations of the company’s goods, it added.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS