‘We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,’ Commerce Secretary Lutnick said.
The Trump administration on March 25 added dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist, restricting Beijing’s ability to access advanced U.S. technology.
The Commerce Department released a list of 80 companies and affiliates to be included on its Entity List, with more than 50 of them based in China. The action makes it hard for them to receive shipments of U.S. goods from their suppliers.
“We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement.
Among those blacklisted are six subsidiaries of Inspur Group, a top Chinese cloud service provider. The Commerce Department officials determined that these entities had aided Inspur in developing supercomputers intended for military use and attempting to acquire U.S. technology to support Beijing’s supercomputer projects.
Inspur Group was designated by the Defense Department as having connections to the Chinese military in 2020 and was subsequently added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List three years later.
Five of the targeted subsidiaries are based in China, and one is in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s economic ministry said it would promptly launch an investigation into the matter. If any violations of the relevant export control or regulations are found, penalties will be imposed by the Taiwanese government, Taiwanese Economic Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters on March 26, according to Taiwan’s state news agency CNA.
The Inspur Group did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
The Trump administration also imposed restrictions on four Chinese firms, including Nettrix Information Industry, which is China’s leading computer server manufacturer. Washington linked the action to the companies’ alleged involvement in developing exascale supercomputers, which can process “vast amounts of data at very high speeds” and perform large-scale simulations, according to the Commerce Department.
The department said these companies also provided “significant manufacturing capabilities” to another Chinese server maker, Sugon, which had been blacklisted during the first Trump administration for building supercomputers for military use.
By Dorothy Li
