China Warns US of Necessary Response after 36 More Firms Added to Export Bla...

BEIJING, December 16 (TMTPOST)— China warns of responses to recent tech curbs imposed by the United States.

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China firmly opposes the U.S.’s decision to add 36 Chinese entities to its Entity List, and as a response, will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and institutions, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

The remark was made a day after the U.S. Department of Commerce announced to place 36 entities primarily located in China on the Entity List, which applies stringent license requirements that will severely restrict these entities’ access to commodities, software, and technologies. The move marks further efforts following those in October to “protect U.S. national security by severely restricting the PRC’s ability to leverage artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez.

The Biden administration announced in October a set of export controls to ban Chinese companies from purchases of advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license, which was deemed as a major threat to Beijing’s technological ambitions as the global semiconductor industry is heavily dependent on the U.S. and its allies.

The spokesperson of China’s Commerce Ministry rebuked the United States for new export controls in the name of national security, accusing the U.S. side of typical market distorting and economic bullying practices as it overstretched the concept of national security, abused export controls, and used state power to expand a crackdown on Chinese companies. The U.S.’s frequent addition of Chinese firms to the Entity List disrupts normal economic and trade cooperation has no good for China, the U.S. itself or the whole world, the spokesperson said. China urges the United States to immediately cease its erroneous practices and return to the correct path of upholding the rules of the multilateral trading system centered on the World Trade Organization, according to the spokesperson.

As to the U.S. another move to remove 25 Chinese entities from its Unverified List (UVL) on Thursday, the spokesperson said China welcome the development, which suggests the two countries can address specific concerns through communication based on mutual respect.