Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is requesting an explanation from the General Services Administration after it reportedly provided a portal for U.S. agencies to buy technology produced by a Chinese company on the Entity List. In a letter to GSA, Rubio pointed to reports that the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Defense Department’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service and the Department of the Army all used the GSA Advantage portal to buy hard drives and video surveillance equipment manufactured by Lorex, a subsidiary of Dahua Technology. Dahua Technology was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 for providing the Chinese government with surveillance equipment to monitor the country’s Uyghur population.
The SEC should ban sanctioned Chinese companies from being included in indices, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other index funds in U.S. capital markets, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said. The nonprofit group said index providers fail to “consider material risks posed by U.S. national security threats” when they evaluate companies, including whether they are listed under a U.S. sanctions regime or designated on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. “These gaps in oversight and due diligence are afflicting index funds held by scores of millions of unwitting American retail investors -- often through their pension funds -- and elevating the material risks in a manner inconsistent with their proper fiduciary duty," CPA wrote to the SEC in a letter released Jan. 5.
Rockley Photonics, a California photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions company, won’t follow through with a sale to Hengtong, a Chinese power and fiber optic cable manufacturer, following Hengtong's addition to the U.S. Entity List this month. Rockley suggested the sale, which it described as a “data-communications-related technical sale,” could be subject to the Export Administration Regulations and require a Bureau of Industry and Security license.
A group of Senate Republicans are calling for the Commerce Department to add more Chinese companies to the Entity List for aiding the government’s human rights abuses against Muslim minorities. The lawmakers specifically asked the agency to blacklist Vistek Co., Beijing IrisKing Co., IriStar Technology Co., Watrix.ai and Beijing ViSystem Corp. because they supply products and services that help the Chinese government use surveillance technologies against minority groups. “While the U.S. government has made strides towards restricting business with some [People's Republic of China] entities,” the senators said in a Dec. 15 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, “efforts are still inadequate with respect to PRC research institutions and their affiliates in light of their contributions to the mass weaponization of surveillance functions.” A Commerce spokesperson said the agency plans to respond to the senators. The letter was signed by Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rick Scott of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Marco Rubio of Florida, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Todd Young of Indiana, Mike Braun of Indiana and Ted Cruz of Texas.
The Commerce Department published its fall 2021 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including a new mention of an export control rule for crime-control items and a rule that would reorganize provisions of the foreign direct product rule in federal regulations.
The Commerce Department should immediately expand an exemption to allow U.S. companies to participate in standards-setting bodies that have members designated on the Entity List, industry representatives said. U.S. firms said they have been forced to avoid the bodies because they fear running afoul of U.S. export laws, a practice that could result in the U.S. losing important influence over the future of emerging technology standards.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added eight Chinese technology firms to its investment blacklist, including drone maker DJI, for helping the Chinese government track and detain Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The move, announced Dec. 16, also banned investments in Cloudwalk Technology Co., Dawning Information Industry Co., Leon Technology Company, Megvii Technology, Netposa Technologies, Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co. and Yitu, all of which are already on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 entities to the Entity List, including 34 Chinese research institutes and technology companies, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program. Other entities added to the list, located in Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, supplied U.S.-origin items to Iranian defense industries, BIS said.
A group of Senate and House Democrats called on the Biden administration to designate more spyware technology companies for human rights abuses, saying the designations will complement existing export restrictions meant to curb their sales of surveillance technologies to authoritarian governments. In a Dec. 15 letter to the Treasury and the State Department, the lawmakers said the U.S. should specifically impose Global Magnitsky sanctions against United Arab Emirates-based DarkMatter (see 2110220033), Israel-based NSO Group and European companies Nexa Technologies and Trovicor. The sanctions should target the companies as well as their CEOs and other senior executives, the letter said, adding that they all have sold surveillance technologies and services to help governments commit human rights violations.
The Biden administration plans to place eight additional Chinese companies on its investment blacklist on Dec. 16, including DJI, the world’s largest drone maker, the Financial Times reported this week. The Treasury Department will add the companies to its Chinese military-industrial complex companies list for their alleged ties to surveillance efforts and human rights abuses of Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, the report said.