The US has added 80 organizations and companies to a trade export blacklistto prevent China from gaining access to computing technology that could be used for military purposes. The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed new restrictionsto prevent Chinese companies from accessing cutting-edge American chips.
More than 50 of the new entities added to the list are based in China, while others are located in Iran, Taiwan, Pakistan, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. According to the BIS, the entities now added may pose a threat to US national security and foreign policy.
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The main goal of the US restrictions and blacklist is to prevent China from developing high-performance computing capabilities, quantum technologies, advanced artificial intelligence , and hypersonic weapons.
“American technology should never be used against the American people,” said Jeffrey Kessler, under secretary of commerce for industry and security. According to the BIS, the Trump administration is promising to protect national security by preventing the misuse of U.S. technologies and products.
Six of the new entities added to the blacklist are subsidiaries of Inspur Group, a leading Chinese cloud computing provider that the US says has contributed to projects supercomputer development for the Chinese military. The Academy of Artificial Intelligence was also added to the US blacklist.
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Chinese authorities argue that these measures constitute an unjustified suppression of Chinese businesses and violate international law. Specifically, China's Foreign Ministry condemned the export restrictions, saying that the expansion of the US blacklist "seriously violates international law and basic norms of international relations."
The decision reflects growing US concerns about China's rapid advancement in high-tech and their potential military applications. China, on the other hand, sees the measures as part of a broader strategy to limit its technological development and economic rise.
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This development is expected to intensify the already tense relations between the two countries and have significant implications for the global technological and economic landscape.
Source: www.theverge.com
