A Chinese national was sentenced to three years in prison after trying to illegally export a radio designated as a defense article to China, the Justice Department said in a June 12 press release. Qingshan Li bought the export-controlled radio -- a U.S. military Harris Falcon III AN/PRC 152A -- in the U.S. and picked it up from a San Diego storage unit last year. Li intended to take the radio to Tijuana, Mexico, in order to ship it to China from there because of Mexico’s lack of export control rules. Li was eventually stopped by U.S. authorities, who found the radio and other military equipment in his bag, the Justice Department said. Li said he knew the radio was export controlled, the agency said.
Exports to China
Clete Willems, former White House deputy assistant to the president for international economics, believes the U.S. must convince allies to present a unified front to China on industrial subsidies, censorship and cybersecurity issues. Willems, who is now a lobbyist with Akin Gump, was speaking during a June 12 online program of the Asia Society. When it's just the U.S. arguing for reforms, he said, China can portray it as the U.S. trying to keep China down. But, he said, it might be possible to get China to change, “if we are able to portray them as an international outlier, which I think they are.”
Companies operating in Hong Kong and mainland China should be reviewing their portfolios in preparation for increased U.S. export controls, which could impact a wide range of global firms, a Mayer Brown trade lawyer said. Aside from sanctions against Chinese officials for interference in Hong Kong’s autonomy, the U.S. is likely to align export control policies for Hong Kong with its policies toward mainland China, creating a significantly more restrictive trade environment, the lawyer said.
State-controlled and private Chinese buyers continue to purchase U.S. soybeans, despite growing tensions between the two countries (see 2005290047), Bloomberg reported June 10. Chinese companies purchased at least 10 cargoes of soybeans this month, Bloomberg said, which came after earlier reports that China was halting certain agricultural imports from the U.S., including soybeans, pork, corn and cotton (see 2006010044).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 1-5 in case you missed them.
China’s Commerce Ministry criticized the U.S.’ recent addition of Chinese companies to the Entity List (see 2006030032) and said it will take “all necessary measures” to defend the rights of its companies, according to an unofficial translation of a June 5 notice. China said the U.S. has “abused” its export control measures, “causing serious damage to the international economic and trade order and a serious threat to the security of the global industrial supply chain.”
U.S. lawmakers and sanctions experts said the administration should move faster to impose sanctions on China for interference in Hong Kong and increase export controls on critical technologies and crowd control equipment. Democratic and Republican senators said they would back a bill introduced in the Senate this week that would sanction Chinese officials and foreign banks, while experts called for a focused, multilateral sanctions approach to minimize impacts on Hong Kong citizens and U.S. companies.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security will officially add 33 companies and government agencies to the Entity List on June 5 for their roles in aiding proliferation activities and human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province, BIS said in two Federal Register notices. The notices formalize the additions, which were announced in May (see 2005220058).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 26-29 in case you missed them.
China reportedly ordered its state-controlled companies to stop buying certain U.S. agricultural products after the U.S. certified last week that Hong Kong no longer qualifies for special trade treatment. The decision also came after President Donald Trump said the U.S. will sanction Chinese officials, increase export controls on dual-use technologies, and end the special customs territory in response to Beijing’s so-called national security law (see 2005290047), which the State Department said threatens Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2005270026).