US imposes trade restrictions on dozens of entities with eye on China
The United States added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist Tuesday, its Commerce Department said, in part to disrupt Beijing's artificial intelligence and advanced computing capabilities.
The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the department citing their "activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy."
Those added to the "entity list" are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization.
"We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives," said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The entities targeted include 11 based in China and one in Taiwan, accused of engaging in the development of advanced AI, supercomputers and high-performance AI chips for China-based users "with close ties to the country's military-industrial complex."
They include the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence and subsidiaries of IT giant Inspur Group.
Others were included for "contributions to unsafeguarded nuclear activities" or ballistic missile programs.
The aim is to prevent US technologies and goods from being misused for activities like high performance computing, hypersonic missiles and military aircraft training, said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler.
Two entities in Iran and China were also added to the list for seeking to procure US items for Iran's defense industry and drone programs, the Commerce Department said.
Beijing condemned the blacklisting of its firms, accusing Washington of "weaponizing" trade and technology in a "typical act of hegemonism".
"We urge the US side to stop generalizing the concept of national security... and stop abusing all kinds of sanctions lists to unreasonably suppress Chinese enterprises," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a daily news conference.
China would take "necessary measures" to defend its firms' rights, Guo added.
Several of the blacklisted companies did not respond to AFP's request for comment on Wednesday.
bur-pfc/oho/mtp
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
25 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong warns of persisting national security threats
HONG KONG — A top Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong affairs on Saturday warned of persisting threats in the city as a China-imposed national security law approaches its fifth anniversary, while seeking to allay concerns about the law's impact on the financial hub's openness. Speaking at a forum about the law, attended also by the city leader John Lee and other officials. Xia Baolong, the director of China's Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said various forms of soft resistance continue to emerge in new forms and external forces have never ceased their intervention in Hong Kong.
New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Got the Fight He Wanted. Did It Turn Out the Way He Expected?
Immigration raids and mass detentions. Federal forces deployed to an American city. Supported by On June 7, Cruz was walking to buy tamales with her sister in San Bernardino, Calif., when she saw a truck full of landscapers being detained by what appeared to be law-enforcement officers in unmarked uniforms. Cruz, a 28-year-old nurse's assistant, is a first-generation Mexican American who was born in California, but her husband is an undocumented immigrant who worked on a similar landscaping crew. (She asked to be identified by only her last name for her family's safety.) When the Trump administration's raids targeting undocumented immigrants reached the city, word of the arrests spread quickly, but Cruz had not taken the news too seriously until she saw one for herself. The next week, on the morning of June 13, her husband called to say he'd been working on Waterman Avenue when a truck full of federal agents pulled up. They appeared to be from Homeland Security Investigations, one of the many federal agencies now scouring Southern California for undocumented immigrants. When an officer asked him if he had a visa, he told the truth. Minutes later, he was in the back of a government vehicle, bound for the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility, in Los Angeles. For nearly a week, such raids had spurred small protests in several cities in the region. Federal agents fired less-lethal munitions at protesters; shortly after, President Trump, casting images of the clashes as evidence of citywide anarchy wrought by undocumented immigrants and their defenders, announced that he was federalizing control of the California National Guard and deploying it to address 'lawlessness.' After protests gave way to rioting on the blocks around the detention center on the night of Sunday, June 8, he announced he was deploying U.S. Marines. By the morning after the arrest of Cruz's husband, a small number of Marines — deployed to an American state over the public opposition of its elected government — stood around the loading dock of the detention center with M27 rifles and riot shields. They stood alongside soldiers from the California National Guard and officers whose vest patches said 'POLICE — DHS,' denoting their affiliation with the Department of Homeland Security. Since the George Floyd demonstrations of 2020, Trump had vocally supported deploying the military to quell violent protests on American streets — a move he had flinched at doing at the time but now was at last making. It was a natural conclusion of the story Trump told on the campaign trail last year about what had happened to America — what his enemies had done to America — and what he would do, if elected again, to restore it. 'Order will be restored,' Trump wrote, 'the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
As Iran and Israel Battle, the Rest of the Mideast Fears What's Next
Across a swath of the Middle East, fighter jets and missiles regularly streak across the sky. The newest war in the region, this time between Israel and Iran, has once again put millions of people in the crossfire of a conflict that they want nothing to do with. The war has embroiled two well-armed, longtime enemies who are ethnic and political outliers in the region, but whose fight, many of their neighbors worry, could swiftly spill beyond their borders. 'We are constantly afraid, and the psychological toll has been heavy,' said Rawan Muhaidat, 28, a mother of two in the town of Kafr Asad in northern Jordan. The sight of Iranian missiles overhead, and the booms of air defenses shooting them down before they reach Israel, have terrified her children, who cower between her and her husband as they worry that their home could be struck. 'Every time a rocket passes and explodes, we think, 'This is the one,'' Ms. Muhaidat said. Adding to many people's fears is the possibility that President Trump will grant Israel's request that the United States intervene by dropping 30,000-pound bombs on an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility buried deep underground. Such a move, experts say, could push Iran to retaliate against American military bases or allies across the Middle East, or to activate proxy forces, like the Houthis in Yemen, to snarl trade routes or damage oil infrastructure, harming the global economy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
