Security News > 2021 > November > US bans Chinese firms – including one linked to HPE’s China JV – for feeding tech to Beijing's military

The US Dept of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security has added 27 companies to its list of entities prohibited from doing business with the USA on grounds they threaten national security - and one of the firms is associated with HPE's Chinese joint venture H3C. A preliminary announcement [PDF] of the bans lists a company named New H3C Semiconductor Technologies Co., Ltd on the grounds of its "Support of the military modernization of the People's Liberation Army.".

The addresses given by Uncle Sam for this semiconductor business matches those listed on the website of H3C, the Chinese company formed as a joint venture between HPE and Tsinghua Unigroup to build networking products.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo characterized another eight newly banned Chinese firms as working to advance Beijing's "Efforts that support military applications, such as counter-stealth and counter-submarine applications, and the ability to break encryption or develop unbreakable encryption."

Corad Technology Limited, a Chinese firm that earned its place on the entity list in 2019, has been joined by three affiliates that the Commerce Department says have been selling US tech to the military and space programs of Iran, North Korea, and Chinese companies.

The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology also scored a ban, on grounds it has made military products for an unidentified military end-user.

The Commerce Department's announcement of the new additions to its naughty lists characterizes the newly named Chinese firms as "PRC government and defense industry subordinate entities." Those words reflect the USA's belief that China uses private firms to obtain technology with military applications during what appears to be legitimate commercial activity.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/us_chinese_ban/