The Bureau of Industry and Security added 77 entities and people to the Entity List, including China’s top chipmaker, to further prevent China and other countries from acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies, the agency said Dec. 18. Along with China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, the Entity List additions include China-based DJI, one of the world’s largest drone makers, and companies in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malta, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will add China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company and more than 60 companies to the Entity List for actions “deemed contrary” to U.S. national security. BIS said SMIC, China’s top chipmaker, has concerning ties to China’s government and risks transferring imported U.S. technology to the country’s military. Other companies will be added to the Entity List for human rights abuses, for supporting China’s militarization of the South China Sea, for diverting U.S. products to China’s military and for the theft of U.S. trade secrets. BIS did not immediately say when the restrictions will take effect.

China is a threat to the U.S., Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said, and he said there's a risk that “the next administration could roll back much of the progress we’ve made the past few years, in an attempt to return to the failed dream of engaging and accommodating China.” Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Subcommittee on Economic Policy, led a subcommittee hearing Dec. 16 on U.S.-China Economic Competition. Cotton said during the hearing that export controls must be tightened.

The Commerce Department published its fall 2020 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including new mentions of rules to amend Hong Kong under the Export Administration Regulations, releases of controlled technologies to standards setting bodies and a range of new technology controls.

The European Union is bracing for a large workload and host of new “responsibilities” as it prepares to implement its new dual-use export control regime, said Denis Redonnet, the European Commission’s chief trade enforcement officer. Redonnet said the regime will “test” EU agencies and governments and will only succeed with cooperation from industry experts.

Leaders of a congressional commission on China asked Intel and Nvidia to explain whether they knew their technology exports to China would help the government conduct mass surveillance of Muslim minorities and eventually lead to human rights violations. In Dec. 4 letters, Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., chair and co-chair, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said they are concerned that sales of the companies’ computer chips are helping to power a Chinese supercomputer being used to suppress minorities in the Xinjiang region, The New York Times reported Nov. 22.

China's attempts at using economic tools, such as export controls on rare earth minerals or punishing imports from Australia, have only been somewhat successful, according to Maximilian Ernst, the speaker on the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies webinar Dec. 7, called “How to Respond to China’s Carrots and Sticks? Prospects of a Transatlantic Response to Chinese Economic Coercion.” Ernst is researching Chinese coercion for a Ph.D.

The Defense Department on Dec. 3 released another list of Chinese companies with ties to the country’s military, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s top chipmaker (see 2011300038). The other companies are China Construction Technology Co. Ltd., China International Engineering Consulting Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. The Defense Department said it designated the companies to “highlight and counter” China’s military-civil fusion efforts, adding that China’s government uses what appear to be civilian entities to acquire advanced technologies. DOD released two similar lists earlier this year (see 2008300001 and 2006250024) and said it will continue to update the lists.

The Justice Department plans to announce more indictments involving cases of Chinese technology theft before the Joe Biden administration takes over in January, top U.S. security officials said. Under the agency’s China initiative (see 2008130036), the U.S. has targeted and arrested Chinese nationals for trying to steal export-controlled technology, an effort that has resulted in more than 1,000 Chinese researchers leaving the country since July, said John Demers, the U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.

The Defense Department plans to add several more Chinese companies, including its top chipmaker, to a blacklist of firms with ties to the country’s military (see 2011230007), Reuters reported Nov. 29. The additions to the list, which have not yet been published, include Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), China Construction Technology Co. Ltd. and China International Engineering Consulting Corp., Reuters said. The companies will likely fall under President Donald Trump’s November executive order to ban Americans from investing in Chinese military companies (see 2011130026).