The US government has added a pair of Chinese companies to its already comprehensive blacklist because of their alleged “support of China’s military modernization.”
Inspur Group Co Ltd and Loongson Technology became the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth entities added to the Chinese section of the list earlier this month.
While the list doesn’t explicitly detail how these entities are tied to the Chinese military, any company in China is obliged to adhere to Chinese government decisions, and as such, those of the military.
US bans more Chinese companies
Inspur claims to be China’s leading cloud computing, big data service provider with attentions focused on cloud data center, cloud services and big data, smart city, and smart enterprises, delivering its services to governments and other agencies in more than 100 countries and regions.
The company has worked with many of the top Western and global computing firms, including the likes of IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel and AMD, making the timing of the decision slightly puzzling.
Loongson is a firm best known for the chips it produces, which are said to be enough to rival the latest Intel and AMD offerings.
Moving forward, any US-based hardware, software, and services companies, or foreign companies that use US technologies, will have to apply for a US export license, which is said to be denied by default unless otherwise reviewed favorably.
The move will likely raise tensions even further as the two giant economies clash in a technology war that has become more apparent in recent years.
The Entity List comprises organizations “for which there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that the entitled have been involved, are involved, or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”.
Currently, 28 of the 38 entries on the list come from the People’s Republic of China, with other entries coming from Pakistan, Burma, Belarus, Russia, and Taiwan in order of significance.
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