The US added more Chinese firms to its trade blacklist.
The US government recently added more Chinese firms to its trade blacklist as the growing tensions between the two countries continued.
CNN reported that the United States was piling more pressure on Chinese entities it claimed could undermine the country’s national security as the US Commerce Department added a dozen Chinese companies to a trade blacklist.
The US officials called the said move as part of an effort in order to prevent emerging US technologies from being used for quantum computing efforts that would support the Chinese military.
Tensions between China and the United States that escalated under former US President Donald Trump have continued to simmer under US President Joe Biden.
The Biden administration had so far done little to wind down the pressure on China despite a recent first virtual summit with President Xi Jinping, and collaboration on the climate crisis and oil reserves.
Aside from Chinese companies, Gizguide reported that companies from Japan, Pakistan, and Singapore were also added to the trade blacklist as well.
With this, China criticized the US for putting a dozen Chinese firms on its trade blacklist over national security and foreign policy concerns.
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Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the Chinese commerce ministry, said at a news conference that China strongly opposed the sanctions on the Chinese firms and will lodge solemn representations with the US.
According to a report on Reuters, the Chinese embassy in Washington charged that the United States used the “catch-all concept of national security” and also abused state power in order to suppress and restrict Chinese enterprises in all possible means.
“China is firmly opposed to that,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.
He also said that the US should “follow the spirit” of a virtual meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week and “meet China halfway instead of going further down the wrong path”.
Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, warned on Thursday that China will take all the necessary steps in order to defend its companies and reserved the right to take countermeasures against the sanctions.
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