The US imposes restrictions on Chinese language chipmakers and different corporations over nationwide safety issues

Military vehicles carrying DF-5B ICBMs take part in a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, October 1, 2019 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Greg Baker | AFP | Getty Images

The Biden administration said Thursday it was “severely restricting” dozens of mostly Chinese organizations, including at least one chipmaker, in their efforts to use advanced technologies to modernize China’s military.

The 36 companies face “strict licensing requirements” that bar their access to certain U.S.-made goods, software and technology — including artificial intelligence and advanced computing — the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a release.

The Bureau’s latest action comes more than two months after the Biden administration imposed new restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors.

The new designations also target organizations linked to Russia that support that country’s military invasion of Ukraine, the agency said.

The measures will protect US national security by stifling Beijing’s ability to “use artificial intelligence, advanced computing and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses,” Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said. in the press release.

“This work continues, as do our efforts to uncover and disrupt Russia’s efforts to obtain necessary items and technology and other items for its brutal war against Ukraine, including from Iran,” Estevez said.

One of the companies added to the so-called company list was Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation, or YMTC, a major Chinese chipmaker that had previously been included in the US Unverified List, another trade-restricting designation.

“I have long raised the alarm about the serious national security and economic threats behind YMTC and other CCP-backed tech companies like CXMT and SMIC,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement Thursday morning .

“YMTC poses an imminent threat to our national security, so the Biden administration had to act quickly to prevent YMTC from gaining even an inch of military or economic advantage,” Schumer said.

Thursday’s press release said 30 of the groups were added to the list of entities for activities related to their efforts to acquire US materials to support China’s military modernization. According to the press release, four others were added to US foreign policy because of “their significant risk of becoming involved in activities that could have an adverse impact” on national security.

Another entity was added for its alleged involvement in China’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang, as well as for allegedly assisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in procuring US items.

The Biden administration also said it will lift some restrictions on a total of 25 Chinese companies that have successfully fled US controls to verify their exported goods were being used as the companies claimed.