BIS Should Have Penalized Chinese Entities for Balloon Surveillance Sooner, Lawmaker Says
New U.S. export restrictions on six Chinese cities with ties to China’s balloon surveillance program is a “step in the right direction,” but it should have come much sooner, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said. “It shouldn’t have taken a flagrant violation of American territorial sovereignty for BIS to take these measures to prevent [the Chinese Communist Party] from using U.S. technology to compromise our national security,” McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week in a news release.
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The Air Force may have known about China’s use of spy balloons as early as April, McCaul said. “My committee will conduct vigorous oversight to uncover why it took [the Bureau of Industry and Security] so long to list companies associated with this CCP espionage program,” the lawmaker said.
A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment. The agency added the six entities to the Entity List last week because of their ties to China’s “High Altitude Balloons'' intelligence and reconnaissance activities (see 2302100072).