The Biden administration said Thursday it would be "severely" restricting dozens of primarily Chinese enterprises, including one chipmaker, over efforts to use sophisticated technologies to help China's military.
The 36 entities are facing "stringent license requirements" that reduce their access to certain U.S.-produced commodities, technologies, and software — including artificial intelligence and advanced computing, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security said in a press release.
The bureau's most recent actions come more than two months after the Biden administration imposed curbs on China's access to advanced semiconductors.
The agency said the new designations would aim at Russia-linked entities supporting the invasion of Ukraine.
These actions are meant to safeguard U.S. national security by crushing Beijing's ability to "leverage artificial intelligence, advanced computer, and other powerful, commercially available computer, and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses," Alan Estevez, undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, said in the press release.
"This work will continue, as will our efforts to detect and disrupt Russia's efforts to obtain necessary items and technologies and other items for its brutal war against Ukraine, including from Iran," Estevez said.
A Chinese chipmaker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), was added to the list and had been on the U.S. Unverified List with trade-restricting designations.
"I've long sounded the alarm on the grave national security and economic threats behind YMTC and other CCP-backed technology companies, like CXMT [ChangXin Memory Technologies] and SMIC [Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co.]," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday morning.
"YMTC poses an immediate threat to our national security, so the Biden administration needed to act swiftly to prevent YMTC from gaining even an inch of a military or economic advantage," Schumer added.
Thursday's press release named 30 groups that would be included in the entity list looking to bolster China's military modernization. According to the release, four more were added because of "their significant risk of becoming involved in activities that could have a negative impact" on national security.
Another entity was included for its alleged association with the China's abuse against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang and for allegedly assisting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in obtaining U.S. items.
The Biden administration said it would eventually lift some restrictions on Chinese entities if they successfully complied with U.S. checks.
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