Washington is unwilling to soften its rhetoric on China, having blacklisted another 10 Chinese high-tech companies. Experts define this move as escalating tensions in the lingering trade war between the largest global economies.
The White House has presented irrefutable evidence that another dozen Chinese companies are involved in collecting confidential information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army. Authorities in a few countries have already revised their diplomatic relations with China or terminated any connections, though China’s Communist party affirms that it is not engaged in industrial espionage. The White House has introduced the most sophisticated measures. From now on, government agencies are checking commercial firms for their spying activity. A lot of suspicious Chinese companies have been already blacklisted. The database is expanding. Recently, ten China-based high-tech firms have been spotted acting in the interests of the Chinese military or attempting “to acquire items of the US origin in support of military applications.”
“Global trade and commerce should support peace, prosperity, and good-paying jobs, not national security risks,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo made a statement.
In the latest move, Biden’s administration blacklisted 27 entities and individuals from China, Pakistan, Russia, Japan, and Singapore. Now, any would-be suppliers of these companies are obliged to obtain a license to greenlight sales. The escalation of the trade conflict caught market participants off-guard. In February, the US President pledged not to use heavy tariffs on China’s imports as a political weapon as his predecessor Donald Trump did. Joe Biden advocated for fair competition with the second largest global economy in line with international trade practice. Apparently, something is still going wrong in the trade relations between the US and China.
