The US Department of Commerce has added 59 Chinese entities to its export-control Entity List including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) for activities that undermine America's national security and foreign policy interests.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in the Department of Commerce added SMIC of China to the Entity List due to China's military-civil fusion (MCF) doctrine and evidence of activities between SMIC and entities of concern in the Chinese military-industrial complex.
"We will not allow advanced US technology to help build the military of an increasingly belligerent adversary. Between SMIC's relationships of concern with the military-industrial complex, China's aggressive application of military-civil fusion mandates, and state-directed subsidies, SMIC perfectly illustrates the risks of China's leverage of US technology to support its military modernization," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
"Entity List restrictions are a necessary measure to ensure that China, through its national champion SMIC, is not able to leverage US technologies to enable indigenous advanced technology levels to support its destabilizing military activities," added Ross.
Post this announcement, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement, "These new restrictions also impose costs on Beijing's unlawful campaign of coercion in the South China Sea. The Department of Commerce is adding 25 shipbuilding research institutes affiliated with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation to the Entity List, as well as six other entities that provide research, development, and manufacturing support for the People's Liberation Army Navy or attempted to acquire US-origin items in support of PLA programs."
Further informing about the Chinese entities added to the list, he said, "The United States is adding four entities to the Entity List for enabling human rights abuses within China by providing DNA-testing materials or high-technology surveillance equipment to the PRC government. We urge the Chinese Communist Party to respect the human rights of the people of China, including Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong members, Uyghur Muslims, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups."
The Department of Commerce is also adding five PRC state-owned enterprises, including the China Communications Construction Company, for their role in the coercion of South China Sea claimant states, he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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