Washington:
The United States added 80 companies and institutes from Pakistan, China and four other countries to its export control list to prevent the US technologies and goods from being “abused” to missiles and other military activities, the trade department said in a post on Tuesday.
According to a New York Times report, Trump administration added 54 companies and organizations from China to the trade department’s unit list as well as more than two dozen from Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, United Arab Emirat (UAE) and Taiwan.
“The added devices had contributed to Pakistani Nuclear activities and its missile program, advanced China’s quantum technology capabilities and hypersonic weapons development and tried to bypass us control of Iran among other actions, the administration said.
The blacklisted companies from China included six subsidiaries of Inspur Group – a leading cloud computing and big data service provider – to contribute to the development of supercomputers to Chinese military, it says. Five of the subsidiaries are based in China and one in Taiwan.
The Inspur Group itself was placed on the list in 2023. The lists are intended to limit China’s ability to develop high prime calculation options, quantum technologies and advanced AI and hinder China’s development of its hypersonic weapon program, the department said.
Trade Blacklist also included the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. “We won’t allow opponents to exploit American technology to strengthen their own military and threaten American lives,” said trade secretary Howard Lutnick.
“The goal is to prevent US technologies and goods from being abused for activities such as high performance computing, hypersonic missiles and military aircraft education and UAVs (drones) that threaten our national security,” said under trade secretary Jeffrey Kessler.
China’s Foreign Ministry said that Beijing would take the necessary measures to protect Chinese companies’ interests. The move is “not conducive to creating an atmosphere for the two sides to solve problems through dialogue and cooperation,” Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was firmly against “these actions taken by the United States, and requires it to immediately stop using military -related issues as pretext to politicize, instrumentalize and arms trade and technical issues.”
By imposing sanctions against several companies, the United States also tried to disrupt Iran’s purchases of drones and related defense articles and prevented the development of its ballistic missile program and non-delayed nuclear activities.
The United States adds companies to the Unity List of National Security or Foreign Policy Concerns. Companies could not sell goods to those mentioned without applying for and getting licenses that are likely to be denied.
(With additional input from News Desk)
