Daily US Times: The United States has blacklisted seven Chinese groups it accuses of building supercomputers to help its military.
The decision is the first move by the Biden administration to make it harder for China to obtain US technology.
Three companies and four branches of China’s National Supercomputing Center were added to the US blacklist on Thursday.
The blacklisting means American companies from exporting technology to the groups without proper approval.
The US commerce department said the Chinese groups were involved facilitating programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction and in building supercomputers used by Chinese “military actors”.
The blacklisted groups are key players in Beijing’s plan for chip self-sufficiency and are leading China’s supercomputing development.
Gina Raimondo, US Commerce Secretary, said the Biden administration would use “the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from leveraging US technologies to support these destabilising military modernisation efforts”.
The former Trump administration had also targeted dozens of Chinese companies, including phonemaker Huawei. Trump administration targeted the Chinese companies of suspecting of using American technology for military uses.
Biden administration’s move on Thursday requires the seven Chinese groups to obtain licences to access US technologies, including chip infrastructures designed by Intel and other US chipmakers.
While the blacklist bars US-based firms and companies from providing products and services to the Chinese firms, it does not bar those that are produced in facilities outside of the US.
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