U.S. adds Chinese tech firms to its export control list, says they sought U.S. knowhow for military use

President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

BANGKOK — China protested Wednesday after the U.S. added dozens of companies to its export control list, including more than 50 based in China that it says sought advanced knowhow in supercomputing, artificial intelligence and quantum technology for military purposes.

Companies from Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and United Arab Emirates also were included in the roughly 80 companies added to the “entity list” of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Six are subsidiaries of the Inspur Group, China’s leading cloud computing and big data service provider. It was listed in the U.S. government’s entity list in 2023.

The update also includes the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, which objected vehemently.

“We are shocked that a private non-profit scientific research institution has been added to the entity list. We strongly oppose this wrong decision without any factual basis and ask the relevant U.S. departments to withdraw it,” the research institute said in a statement.

A review committee said the BAAI and another company, the Beijing Innovation Wisdom Technology Co. were judged to have developed large AI models and advanced computer chips for military purposes.

China’s Foreign Ministry also lashed back, saying the entity list and other export controls were an abuse meant to “unjustly suppress Chinese enterprises.”

“It seriously violates international law and basic norms of international relations, severely damages the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, and undermines the security and stability of global supply chains. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a routine news briefing Wednesday.

The aim is to restrict China’s capacity to acquire and develop ultra fast, or “exascale” supercomputers, to develop hypersonic weapons and other sensitive technologies, the bureau said in a notice on its website. It also is intended to prevent South Africa’s Test Flying Academy from using U.S. goods to train Chinese troops, disrupt Iran’s access to unmanned aerial vehicles and other military items and hinder development of insecure nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it said.

The companies on the list are subject to the “foreign direct product rule” of the BIS which allows it to control reexports and transfers of foreign-made products containing technology that the U.S. government deems vital for national security.

The tightening of controls comes as the Trump administration prepares for another round of tariff hikes due next week, an escalation of the trade war that President Donald Trump launched during his first term in office.

Trump has already raised tariffs on imports of Chinese goods to 20%. On Monday he said he would impose a 25% tariff on all imports from any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela. China buys a large share of the oil exported by Venezuela.

China has retaliated with its own countermeasures, including sweeping new duties on a variety of American goods and an anti-monopoly investigation into Google.

It also has moved to tighten its own sanctions regime, meanwhile, with a law enabling it to freeze assets of companies subject to Chinese sanctions.

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Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press