The United States Government is adding a bunch more Chinese firms to its trade blacklist. The firms have been added to the US Entity List for their alleged assistance in the Chinese military"s quantum computing efforts like counter-stealth and counter-submarine applications, and the ability to break encryption or develop unbreakable encryption.
The ban is part of the trade war between the US and China that first started in 2019 when the US Department of Commerce put Huawei and 70 of its affiliates to the Entity List that bars anyone on it from purchasing parts and components from US companies without government approval. The eight tech firms that are now blacklisted have either acquired or attempted to acquire US-origin items to support Chinese military applications.
According to Reuters, the US Commerce Department also added several entities and individual from China and Pakistan for contributing to Pakistan"s nuclear activities and ballistic missile program. In addition to China and Pakistan, a total of 27 new entities were added to the blacklist from Japan and Singapore as well.
The Chinese firms that are now blacklisted include Hangzhou Zhongke Microelectronics Co Ltd, Hunan Goke Microelectronics, New H3C Semiconductor Technologies Co Ltd, Xi"an Aerospace Huaxun Technology and Yunchip Microelectronics among others for their support of the military modernization of the People"s Liberation Army. The list also includes Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, QuantumCTek and Shanghai QuantumCTeck Co Ltd.
Source: Reuters