US adds dozens of Chinese entities to export restrictions list

WASHINGTON: The United States added six subsidiaries of Inspur Group, China’s leading cloud computing and big data service provider, and dozens of other Chinese entities to its export restriction list.

The Inspur units were listed for contributing to the development of supercomputers for the Chinese military, the Commerce Department said in a posting. Five of the subsidiaries are based in China and one in Taiwan. Inspur Group itself was placed on the list in 2023.

The Inspur units are among about 80 companies and institutes added to the export control list. Over 50 are based in China, others are in Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The listings are intended to restrict China’s ability to develop high-performance computing capabilities, quantum technologies and advanced AI, and impede China’s development of its hypersonic weapons programme.

“We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.

China’s foreign ministry in response to an enquiry on Wednesday condemned the US move and said the country will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

The move is “not conducive to creating an atmosphere for the two sides to solve problems through dialogue and cooperation,” China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said that it firmly opposed “these acts taken by the US and demand that it immediately stop using military-related issues as pretexts to politicise, instrumentalise and weaponise trade and tech issues.”