US Commerce Department Bans Seven Chinese Supercomputing Entities; Cites Support Chinese Military

The Biden administration has added seven Chinese entities to the US government’s Entity List for the first time.

A picture of the US Department of Commerce’s office building Credit: Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

The Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) decided to add seven Chinese supercomputing entities to the US government’s Entity List due to the entities’ involvement with the Chinese military. The Commerce Department explained that these entities were “building supercomputers used by China’s military actors” in addition to being a part of the Chinese military’s destabilising military modernisation efforts and/or creating weapons of mass destruction programs.

The entities that were added to the Entity List are Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, the National Supercomputing Center Jinan, the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, the National Supercomputing Center Wuxi and the National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that the department will “use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from leveraging US technologies to support these destabilising military modernisation efforts.”

Former US President Donald Trump added many Chinese apps and companies to its blacklist before his term ended in January 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

You may remember that the Trump administration had banned many China-based companies due to them posing as a “national security threat” because of their strong ties to the Chinese military. Tech companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei have received either an export ban that prohibits American companies doing business with foreign firms classified as a national security risk or an executive order ordering American investors to divest their investment from said company.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that she was looking forward to a briefing on the companies added to the Entity List back when she was President Biden’s nominee for the position of Secretary of Commerce.

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Written by John Paul Joaquin