Washington D.C.: The US Department of Commerce has targeted 34 entities that it said were enabling human rights abuses in China, Iran and Russia. It said that these entities were added to the Entity List for their involvement in, or risk of becoming involved in, activities contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.
In all 14 of these entities are based in China, and the US claimed they had “enabled Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions of China (XUAR), where the PRC continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity”. The US Department of Commerce added another five entities directly supporting China’s military modernization programs related to lasers and C4ISR programs to the Entity List.
In a statement on July 9, 2021, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said: “The Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to taking strong, decisive action to target entities that are enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang or that use U.S. technology to fuel China’s destabilizing military modernization efforts. We will continue to aggressively use export controls to hold governments, companies, and individuals accountable for attempting to access U.S.-origin items for subversive activities in countries like China, Iran, and Russia that threaten U.S. national security interests and are inconsistent with our values.”
As part of this package, Commerce added eight entities for facilitating the export of U.S. items to Iran in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) or to entities on the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially-Designated Nationals List.
Commerce added another six entities for their involvement in the procurement of U.S.-origin electronic components, likely in furtherance of Russian military programs. Additionally, Commerce added one entity to the Military End-User List under the destination of Russia. Finally, Commerce removed one entity from the Unverified List, as a conforming change to this same entity being added to the Entity List for being involved in proliferation to unsafeguarded nuclear activities.
The Entity List is a tool utilized by Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce to restrict the export, reexport, and transfer (in-country) of items subject to the EAR to persons (individuals, organizations, companies) reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Additional license requirements apply to exports, re-exports, and transfers (in-country) of items subject to the EAR to listed entities, and the availability of most license exceptions is limited.
– global bihari bureau
