Chinese and American flags fly outside the premises of an American company in Beijing, China, on Jan. 21, 2021.
Tingshue Wang | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department on Thursday added seven Chinese supercomputer entities to a US economic blacklist, citing concerns about national security.
The department added Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, National Supercomputing Center Jinan, National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, National Supercomputing Center Wuxi, and National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou to the blacklist.
The seven entities were blacklisted for “building supercomputers used by China’s military actors are destabilizing military modernization efforts and / or weapons of mass destruction”.
US officials have long complained that Chinese companies are obligated to the People’s Republic of China and collect sensitive information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese Communist Party has previously said it will not engage in corporate espionage.
“Supercomputer capabilities are essential for the development of many – perhaps nearly all – modern weapons and national security systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo wrote in a statement.
“The Commerce Department will use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from using US technologies to support these destabilizing military modernization efforts,” she added.
The new rules, which restrict US exports to affected entities, will take effect immediately. However, they do not apply to goods from US suppliers that are already in transit.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Under former President Donald Trump, the US added a slew of Chinese companies to its economic blacklist, including the country’s top smartphone maker, Huawei, the best chipmaker SMIC, and the largest drone maker, SZ DJI Technology.