Chinese Firms Added To Entity List As US Seeks To Halt Chip Developm'nt

The US Commerce Department has added 36 Chinese firms to its trade blacklist in an effort to further hinder Beijing's development of high-tech semiconductors and microchips for use in advanced weaponry.

• The addition of these firms to the 'entity list' will see any US firms seeking to export advanced tech to these companies required to hold licences from the gov't.
• FT reports: "[Commerce Dep't] also applied the “foreign direct product rule” to 21 entities, meaning non-American companies will be prohibited from exporting products that contain a specified amount of US technology to the Chinese groups."
• Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez stated that with the additions, “We are building on the actions we took in October to protect US national security by severely restricting . . . China’s ability to leverage artificial intelligence, advanced computing and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernisation and human rights abuses,”