US adds a dozen Chinese businesses to its trade blacklist

The US Commerce Section on Wednesday added a dozen Chinese firms to a trade blacklist, declaring that some of the companies have supported the modernization of China’s army.

US officers identified as the move element of an exertion to prevent emerging US technologies from staying employed for quantum computing efforts that would guidance China’s navy, this kind of as “counter-stealth and counter-submarine programs.”

The Commerce Office also cited issues about China’s “potential to crack encryption or acquire unbreakable encryption.” And it said that many entities from China and Pakistan had been additional to the checklist for contributing to Pakistan’s nuclear functions or ballistic missile application.

Tensions in between the United States and China that escalated below former President Donald Trump have continued to simmer less than President Joe Biden. And inspite of a the latest to start with virtual summit with President Xi Jinping, and collaboration on the weather disaster and oil reserves, his administration has so far finished tiny to wind down the pressure on Beijing.
In April, the Biden administration additional 7 Chinese corporations with ties to the army to the listing that restricts US firms from working with the organizations. At the time, the Commerce Department said those businesses operated in the subject of supercomputing and have served the Chinese government modernize its army or have labored on weapons of mass destruction plans.

China’s International Ministry on Thursday blasted the new sanctions, stating that the country “will get all needed steps to resolutely safeguard the reputable rights and interests of Chinese providers.”

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused the United States of possessing “consistently generalized national security” and owning “abused point out electricity” to suppress Chinese enterprises.

In overall, 27 international entities and men and women had been extra to the US Commerce Department’s trade blacklist. Alongside with the Chinese firms, other targets were based in Pakistan, Japan and Singapore.

“Global trade and commerce must support peace, prosperity, and fantastic-shelling out employment, not nationwide stability challenges,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo stated in a assertion.

— CNN’s Beijing bureau contributed to this report.