A law designed to counteract foreign sanctions has been submitted to China's legislature for a second reading, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported June 7. The draft was submitted to China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress. The law would strengthen China's “legal toolkit with focus on moves against sanctions and interference and countering long-arm jurisdiction to cope with challenges and risks,” the report said. It said the law responds to an uptick in Western sanctions used as “part of their pretexts to spread rumors on and smear, contain and suppress China.” China recently issued regulations for its unreliable entity list (see 2009210017) and an export control regime (see 2010190033). Former U.S. officials say more trade restrictions laws are likely on the way (see 2012170041)
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The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S. laser manufacturer $350,000 for illegally exporting laser systems to China, according to a May 28 order. The company, New York-based Photonics Industries International, exported more than 20 “RGH-1064-30 picosecond laser systems” to China in 2014 and failed to apply for the required licenses, which violated the Export Administration Regulations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added eight entities to the Entity List for their involvement in nuclear proliferation activities and issued several other revisions, one correction and one removal from the Entity List and Military End User List. The eight entities, located in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, include laboratory equipment providers, engineering companies and electronics makers. They will face a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial. No license exceptions will be available. The changes take effect June 1.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added eight entities to the Entity List for their involvement in nuclear proliferation activities. The entities, located in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, will face a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial.
Uyghur Human Rights Project Board Chair Nury Turkel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that his nonprofit wants swift passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that goods from China's Xinjiang province were made with forced labor. "The 11 current Withhold-release orders (WROs) are a wholly inadequate response to the gravity of the crimes, the harm to American workers whose wages are undercut by forced-labor competition, and the unwitting complicity of American consumers who buy face masks, hair weaves, cotton apparel, and solar panels produced by the forced labor of Muslim Uyghurs," he said in his prepared testimony.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she plans to heavily enforce Entity List restrictions and more aggressively tackle the agency's emerging and foundational technology export control mandate. And although the agency’s review of China policies is ongoing (see 2101250049), she again stressed that Commerce doesn’t plan to remove export restrictions from Huawei and is looking for more companies to add to the Entity List.
The Justice Department hasn’t yet begun prosecuting cases involving violations of the Commerce’s Department's newly issued end-user restrictions but expects that to soon become a significant part of the agency’s focus, a senior Department of Justice official said.
Congress should codify regulations from a November executive order that imposed investment bans on certain Chinese companies with ties to the military, said Matt Pottinger, a former deputy national security adviser during the Trump administration. He also said the U.S. should take a stricter stance on export licenses involving semiconductor shipments as China tries to become the world’s “only” supplier of advanced technologies.
Two Republican lawmakers urged the Commerce Department to place more restrictions on exports of electronic design automation tools (see 2104060045). In an April 13 letter, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said they are concerned that EDA tools are being used by Chinese companies -- including Phytium Technologies, which was added to the Entity List this month (see 2104080011) -- to develop advanced weapons and support the Chinese military.