The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) made 32 additions to the Entity List last week, hitting China’s advanced tech sectors with further export controls as high-level trade talks between the two countries continue.
Friday’s expansion, the first since March, focused on facilitators of China’s military capabilities, as well as third-country diversion to Russia’s military and the flow of sensitive trade to Iran. It encompassed 23 Chinese companies along with a handful in Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, India, Taiwan and Singapore that BIS determined “to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
Placement on the list, which now covers more than 3,400 entities, restricts parties from receiving certain U.S.-origin goods, services and technologies without a license.
Here’s what to know about the latest targets—and another wrinkle on the move’s timing.
Last Wednesday, according to congressional records, President Trump withdrew his nomination of Landon Heid, a China hawk, to serve as assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Department, the role that oversees the Entity List. At his Senate hearing in April, Heid had discussed the possibility of a new rule that would subject subsidiaries owned 50% or more by Entity Listed companies to export controls, too.
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Friday’s expansion, the first since March, focused on facilitators of China’s military capabilities, as well as third-country diversion to Russia’s military and the flow of sensitive trade to Iran. It encompassed 23 Chinese companies along with a handful in Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, India, Taiwan and Singapore that BIS determined “to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
Placement on the list, which now covers more than 3,400 entities, restricts parties from receiving certain U.S.-origin goods, services and technologies without a license.
Here’s what to know about the latest targets—and another wrinkle on the move’s timing.
Backdrop
The new Entity List additions came just two days after a related and potentially consequential personnel move on the U.S. side.Last Wednesday, according to congressional records, President Trump withdrew his nomination of Landon Heid, a China hawk, to serve as assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Department, the role that oversees the Entity List. At his Senate hearing in April, Heid had discussed the possibility of a new rule that would subject subsidiaries owned 50% or more by Entity Listed companies to export controls, too.
- A Kharon analysis found that such a rule could bring thousands of entities across nearly 100 jurisdictions under export restrictions. The majority of the subsidiaries that Kharon identified were located in China or Russia.
The notable new additions
1. A string of microelectronics companies across China, Singapore and Taiwan, for “acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of China’s military modernization, for participating in China’s advanced computing and integrated circuit manufacturing and distribution sectors, and directly supplying the military, government, and security apparatus of China.”- BIS singled out two of the companies, trading partners Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and its minority-owned subsidiary Sino IC Technology Co., Ltd., for further restrictions under the Foreign Direct Product Rule, citing their production of advanced chips. Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics also supplied tech to Russian military end-users, BIS said.
- Related note: BIS also listed two Chinese semiconductor firms for acquiring U.S.-origin manufacturing equipment on behalf of Entity Listed SMIC, the top Chinese chipmaker.
- the National Time Service Center, which generates, maintains and transmits Beijing standard time, for “acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of advancing China’s military and defense-related space-domain activities, as well as China’s quantum technology capabilities.”
- the Aerospace Information Research Institute, which describes itself as “China’s first comprehensive research institute in the fields of electronics, information science and technology.” BIS said it was adding it “for its connections to China’s High Altitude Balloon program.”
- In the news: U.S. lawmakers have increasingly pushed to impose fresh sanctions on Russia in recent months, with Moscow showing no apparent interest in ending its war in Ukraine. On Saturday, a month after meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump posted that he would agree to “major sanctions” on Russia only if NATO countries imposed the same and stopped all purchases of Russian oil.
- BIS identified one newly listed firm, Smart Mail Services, as a facilitator of the “illicit transshipment network” of Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, whom the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2023.
In brief
The outlook for U.S. measures restricting China’s tech sectors, and for international measures against Russia and Iran, all hang in the balance. But BIS is tightening export controls against all three countries in the meantime, whether the Entity List has its administrator in place or not.More from the Kharon Brief:
