Chinese and American flags fly outside the building of an American company in Beijing, China, January 21, 2021.
Tingshue Wang | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department on Thursday added seven Chinese supercomputers to a US economic blacklist, citing national security concerns.
The department blacklisted Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, Jinan National Supercomputing Center, Shenzhen National Supercomputing Center, Wuxi National Supercomputing Center and Zhengzhou National Supercomputing Center.
The seven entities were blacklisted for “building supercomputers used by China’s military actors, its destabilizing military modernization efforts and / or weapons of mass destruction programs.”
US officials have long complained that Chinese companies are subject to the People’s Republic of China and collect sensitive information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese Communist Party has previously said it does not engage in industrial espionage.
“Supercomputer capabilities are vital to the development of many – perhaps almost all – modern weapons and national security systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
“The Department of Commerce will use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from using US technologies to support these destabilizing military modernization efforts,” she added.
The new rules, which restrict US exports to the entities concerned, take effect immediately. However, they do not apply to goods from US suppliers that are already on their way.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Under former President Donald Trump, the United States has added a number of Chinese companies to its economic blacklist, including top smartphone maker Huawei, chip maker SMIC and largest drone maker SZ DJI Technology.