Lawmaker Calls for Adding Two Chinese Display Firms to Pentagon's 1260H List
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., urged the Defense Department this week to add two leading Chinese display providers, BOE Technology Group and Tianma Microelectrics Co., to its Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies, citing their ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Moolenaar said that many of BOE's customers are PLA suppliers and that Tianma is a subsidiary of state-owned defense conglomerate Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), which is already on the 1260H list along with five of its affiliates (see 2106280023). In addition, BOE and Tianma both operate out of a military-civil fusion enterprise zone in China's Sichuan province.
Moolenaar said Chinese state subsidies have allowed BOE and Tianma to achieve dominance in the market for the two main types of displays: liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which are based on legacy technology, and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, which use newer technology. Unable to compete, rivals have exited the market, leaving the U.S. dependent on “our foremost foreign adversary” for such displays, which are used in drones, missiles and other weapon systems as well as civilian products, such as televisions, the letter says.
If China were to stop supplying displays to the U.S., “production of many of these [weapon] systems would halt,” Moolenaar wrote. “As such, the Department of Defense needs a plan to quickly reduce reliance on [China] in display technology.”
DOD, BOE and Tianma had no immediate comment on the letter.