US blacklists more Chinese entities

The US government has blacklisted more than 40 additional Chinese companies, banning the firms from receiving US investment and technologies.

The US Department of Treasury said on 16 December that it had blacklisted eight firms for being involved in China's “military-industrial complex”.

The US Department of Commerce said on the same day that it had included an additional 34 Chinese companies on its Entity List.

Chinese firms newly identified as ‘Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies' (CMIC) include DJI, a manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, and CloudWalk Technology, a developer of facial recognition software.

The Treasury Department said sanctions placed on the firms mean US investors will be banned from purchasing or selling the firms' shares. It alleged that the firms supported the surveillance and tracking of ethnic and religious minorities in China.

Chinese enterprises added to the Entity List include 12 branches of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), an institute under the People's Liberation Army.

The Commerce Department alleged that AMMS uses biotechnology to “support Chinese military end uses and end-users, to include purported brain-control weaponry”. It did not elaborate.

Other new entities on the Entity List include the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group, an armament production facility – also known as the 617 Factory – that was formerly owned by China North Industries Group Corporation, and the 52nd Research Institute under the China Electronics Technology Group that develops radio-frequency identification technologies.

The Commerce Department said the enterprises' inclusion on the Entity List is a result of their development of “biotechnology and other technologies” for military applications and human rights abuses.

According to the Commerce Department, inclusion on the Entity List prohibits the identified enterprises from involvement in the export, re-export, or in-country transfer of US dual-use technologies.