The United States has added 80 companies from Pakistan, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa to its export blacklist.
80 companies from Pakistan, The Daily Jang quoted a foreign news agency as saying that more than 50 Chinese companies are among the companies on the blacklist. British media say that 19 Pakistani companies are among the companies under the US ban, while 4 companies from the United Arab Emirates and Iran have also been banned.
The banned companies also include 6 subsidiaries of China’s leading cloud computing and big data service provider Insper Group. In addition to the Insper Group companies, other Chinese entities have been added to the export ban list.
According to the US Department of Commerce, these Insper Group companies were providing assistance in the production of supercomputers for the Chinese military. Insper Group has already been added to the list in 2023.
The sanctions are aimed at curbing China’s development of high-performance computing, quantum technologies, advanced artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons programs.
The US Secretary of Commerce says that it will not allow rivals to misuse American technology to increase military power and endanger American citizens. The Chinese embassy has said in its response that it strongly opposes the US measures, and that the US should refrain from politicizing trade and technology issues under the pretext of military matters and using them as weapons.