The new US administration continues to expand its export control list to include more companies and entities suspected of aiding China’s military-industrial complex. This week, it added about 80 more companies and entities, more than 50 of them based in China, including subsidiaries of server hardware maker Inspur.
Image source: Inspur
As Reuters notes, in addition to Chinese companies, companies in Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and the UAE were added to the US export control list this week. Some of them are suspected of cooperating with companies that were previously included in the export control list, such as China’s Huawei Technologies. The actions of the US authorities have once again been met with objections from Chinese diplomats, who have accused the US of using national security issues to achieve goals in the technology and trade spheres.
The inclusion of companies on the US export control list means that their suppliers will need to apply for an export license from the Department of Commerce, which they are highly unlikely to receive. The parent company Inspur was included on the US export control list back in 2023, but now the sanctions have been extended to its subsidiaries. The new list also includes Chinese companies that the US side suspects of assisting the Chinese authorities in building supercomputers. Some of them also acted as contractors for China’s Sugon, which was included on the US export control list back in 2019. Supplies of components for quantum computers developed in China also became the basis for the inclusion of individual Chinese companies on the sanctions list.