China vows countermeasures on U.S. sanctions against its firms
- by Claude Bryan
- in Markets
- — Dec 21, 2020
Drone maker DJI and chipmaker SMIC are the latest Chinese firms to be added to a United States trade blacklist. The department will review these licenses on a case-by-case basis.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Saturday said that the U.S. has "abused" export controls to suppress enterprises, institutions, and individuals of other countries, Xinhua reported.
The US Department of Defense earlier this month added the firm to a list of companies the agency claims are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, and it has not filed any new statements to the Shanghai Stock Exchange about Liang or the USA sanctions.
Wang Yi, China's State Councillor Wang Yi and also the country's foreign minister, on Friday noted the increasing list of USA sanctions and called on Washington to stop its "arbitrary suppression" of Chinese companies.
In total, 80 companies are expected to be targeted - almost all of them Chinese.
Addition to the list means United States exporters must apply for a license any time they want to sell to the Chinese company.
A fifth consecutive day with more than 2,000 cases
Public health officials reported 877 patients in hospital, including 261 in intensive care and 168 on a ventilator. Quebec has had 174,839 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7,715 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Commerce Department added DJI, AGCU Scientech, China National Scientific Instruments and Materials, and Kuang-Chi Group because the four companies "enabled wide-scale human rights abuses within China through abusive genetic collection and analysis or high-technology surveillance".
"We have no relationship with the Chinese military". The list includes DJI and SMIC. Chinese smartphone maker and 5G network supplier Huawei, for example, has seen its sales growth slow significantly since it was added to the list a year ago. The benchmark indices in the two markets were down less than 1%. They declined to give details on which governments the U.S.is talking to and potential implications for non-U.S. companies such as ASMl Holding and Tokyo Electron Ltd. that also supply equipment for making advanced chips.
SMIC had already been in Washington's crosshairs.
Last month, the Defense Department added the company to a separate blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies, effectively banning USA investors from buying its shares starting late next year.
SMIC leads China's campaign to establish a self-sufficient semiconductor industry, one not dependent on USA companies.
"We have hard evidence that their clients are using the chips that SMIC produces to support the Chinese military".
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have recently escalated amid the handling of the coronavirus, back-and-forth sanctions, an ongoing trade war over tariffs and China's imposition of its security law national in Hong Kong.
