Among those added to the list are three companies that resold U.S.-made aerodynamics technology produced by Pennsylvania-based Ansys and Siemens Digital Industries Software to Chinese universities that develop hypersonic technology. Yet another blacklisted Chinese firm facilitated sales of advanced U.S. optics technology to the China Air–to–Air Missile Research Institute in Luoyang. The resellers have openly advertised their work with the Chinese defense industry.
“These entities have demonstrable ties to activities of concern, including hypersonic weapons development, design and manufacture of air-to-air missiles, hypersonic flight modeling, and weapon life cycle management using Western software,” said the Commerce Department in a notice outlining the new controls on Monday.
The latest bans come as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Beijing next week in a bid improve relations between the two countries that soured in late January when a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the continental United States. China-U.S. tensions have reached record highs over a range of issues — including American efforts to contain Beijing’s access to semiconductors and other competitive technologies used for military purposes.
The Washington Post earlier reported sales by four of the blacklisted Chinese firms as part of a broader investigation into U.S. technology transfer to around 50 Chinese groups that had been previously sanctioned by the United States for their ties to the military.
The Chinese companies now have been added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which bars the export of U.S. technology to designated groups without a government license. The list has been expanded several times under the Biden administration to include firms linked to China’s defense, human rights and state surveillance programs.
The list has become a major point of tension in Beijing, where officials dismiss it as a tool for illegally suppressing Chinese firms. Other additions this year include five Chinese firms linked to Beijing’s airship program.
The 30 newly blacklisted Chinese groups are among 43 entities added this week, including five from the United Arab Emirates, four from Pakistan and three from South Africa. Several of those companies are aviation groups, sanctioned for their ties to programs training Chinese military pilots using Western and NATO resources, the Commerce Department notice said.
The sanctions follow reports that potentially dozens of pilots from countries including Germany and the United Kingdom have been recruited by China to train members of the People’s Liberation Army. Two of the firms blacklisted by the United States this week are U.K. aviation training entities, though the Commerce Department did not specify whether they were linked to the previously reported recruitment programs.
Other firms added to the Entity List include six Chinese firms that the Commerce Department says conspired to violate U.S. export laws in a scheme to provide the PLA Navy with U.S. military-grade vessels and equipment. Two further firms were added to the list for distributing surveillance and biometrics technology to Chinese police, including authorities in Xinjiang, where experts estimate over 1 million ethnic Uyghurs have been detained in recent years as part of a broad crackdown.
Beijing sharply criticized the fresh bans and accused the United States of abusing state power to “hysterically” destabilize global supply chains and “go after” Chinese firms.
“We firmly oppose these acts taken by the U.S. and demand that it immediately stop using military and human rights-related issues as pretexts to politicize, instrumentalize and weaponize trade and tech issues, and stop abusing export control tools such as entity lists to keep Chinese companies down,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing on Monday.
“China will continue to do what is necessary to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies,” he said.
