The Biden administration is planning new human rights sanctions against Chinese surveillance company Hikvision, the Financial Times reported May 4. Although the administration hasn’t yet made a “final decision” on the controls, the move would represent the “first time the U.S. has imposed such sanctions on a big Chinese technology group,” the report said. The move could have “far-reaching consequences” on companies that deal with Hikvision, the report said. Hikvision is the world’s largest surveillance equipment manufacturer. The White House didn’t comment. Hikvision was designated a Chinese military company and added to an investment ban list in 2020 (see 2011130026), and was added to the Entity List in 2019 (see 1910070076).
PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. government is working through a range of challenges when delivering export control guidance to university researchers, government officials said, including to some colleges that opt out of certain projects rather than risk violating controls. The government is also still running into challenging questions about whether its controls should apply to fundamental research, one official said.
Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.
The Commerce Department is investigating U.S. software company Synopsys for possibly violating U.S. export controls against China, Bloomberg reported April 13. Commerce is looking into whether Synopsys, the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor design software, worked with Chinese affiliates to provide chip designs and software to Huawei Technologies’ HiSilicon unit for manufacture at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, the report said. Both companies are subject to Entity List licensing restrictions.
Some U.S. export control policies are hindering the American semiconductor sector and chip innovation, technology companies and trade groups told the Commerce Department in recent comments (see 2201210024). Commerce can take steps to ease compliance challenges, including around deemed export controls, and make sure to propose narrow and multilateral emerging and foundational technology controls, the commenters said.
Laurie Locascio, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for standards and technology, was confirmed by the Senate April 7. Locascio, previously the vice president for research at the University of Maryland, was initially nominated last year. With no vote held before the end of last year’s session, the administration was required to resubmit the nomination (see 2107210006). Locascio will head the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has been asked by industry to make it easier for U.S. firms to participate in standards bodies that have members that are on the Entity List (see 2111030009 and 2112170037).
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a correction this week to its final rule that added 120 new entities to the Entity List April 1 for supporting Russia’s and Belarus’ militaries (see 2204010080 and 2204040006). The agency said its inclusion of the “Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus” on page three was a mistake. BIS said that entity was “not included in the regulatory text of the rule and reference to it in the preamble was inadvertent.”
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After the Bureau of Industry and Security added 120 entities to its Entity List last week for supporting the Russian and Belarusian militaries (see 2204010080), senior BIS official Thea Kendler said the U.S. won’t “hesitate” to impose more export restrictions.
Apple is considering incorporating chips made by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Bloomberg reported March 30, a Chinese state-owned company that some lawmakers say should be placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity list. Apple is exploring placing YMTC memory chips into its iPhones after one of its key suppliers in Japan, Kioxia Holdings Corp., “lost a batch of output to contamination” in February, the report said. Apple is “keen to diversify its network and offset the risk of further disruption from the pandemic and shipping snarls,” the report said, and is now testing sample NAND flash memory chips made by YMTC.