U.S. Blacklists Dozens of Chinese Entities

Control of critical technologies is on the front lines of the global rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

All told, more than 40 Chinese companies and other entities were added to either the Commerce Department’s entity list, which restricts access to U.S. exports, or to a Treasury list banning American investment in companies supporting China’s military.

The agencies and White House officials said the targets were engaged in actions inimical to U.S. interests, including for assisting China’s surveillance and detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region.

“These actions come in the broader context of the administration’s efforts to address the misuse of technology to surveil and in many cases … to exercise large scale repressive social control,” a senior administration official said, citing widespread DNA collection as an example.

The Commerce Department said it was also restricting exports to some of the Chinese companies plus other entities operating in Georgia, Malaysia, and Turkey for diverting or attempting to divert U.S. items to Iran’s missile and other military programs.

China’s Foreign Ministry has criticized the blacklisting of Chinese companies, with a spokesman in Beijing on Thursday accusing the U.S. of exerting “unwarranted suppression on Chinese companies.”

DJI declined to comment after its Treasury blacklisting was initially reported Wednesday. Last year, when blacklisted by the Commerce Department, the company said, “DJI has done nothing to justify” the penalty.

The Biden administration has accelerated its actions against Chinese technology companies in recent weeks and activities in biotechnology have been a focus of concern, the administration official said.

Thursday’s blacklisting of the Chinese academy and its research institutes was due to their support for the Chinese military, including research into “purported brain-control weaponry,” a Commerce Department statement said. The Treasury Department also pointed to biometric surveillance in its blacklisting of eight companies.

Also targeted Thursday was the successor company to undersea cable company Huawei Marine Networks, which was acquired from Huawei Technologies Co. by Hengtong Group, as well as other Hengtong subsidiaries. Hengtong didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Biden administration has labeled China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide and has previously taken action against Beijing, which denies any mistreatment. Earlier this month, the U.S. said it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the coming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, meaning no officials would attend, though American athletes would still participate. Several other countries announced similar boycotts. Mr. Biden is expected to sign legislation to ban imports from Xinjiang over concerns about the use of forced labor.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected] and Ian Talley at [email protected]