Republicans Demand Tougher Export Controls, Criminal Charges for Huawei, SMIC
Republicans asked the Biden administration to strengthen export controls against Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., after Huawei unveiled a new smartphone this month that may have been made through means that violated U.S. export restrictions. In a letter sent…
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to the Bureau of Industry and Security last week, 10 House Republicans, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul of Texas, said they're “extremely troubled and perplexed” about BIS’ “inability to effectively write and enforce export control rules against violators, especially China.” They said BIS has continued to grant licenses to SMIC and other Chinese companies despite “continued Congressional pressure to adopt stricter policies.” They said both technology companies should be subject to “full blocking sanctions” and their executives should face criminal investigations, and the Commerce Department should revoke all of their existing license applications, add all their subsidiaries to the Entity List and take other measures to cut off a broad range of shipments to both firms. The lawmakers asked for a briefing with BIS and other agencies that oversee export controls by Sept. 28 and listed several recommendations for the administration to further limit sensitive technology exports to China, including by creating a new sanctions authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act specifically focused on China. The new sanctions authority should be used to target companies that “flout” export controls and should be leveraged to “designate SMIC and Huawei with full blocking sanctions.”