DOJ this week announced charges involving two illegal technology transfer schemes, which were meant to benefit the Chinese and Iranian governments.
Exports to China
An investigation by the House Select Committee on China found that five U.S. venture capital firms have invested more than $3 billion in Chinese technology companies, many of which aid China’s military, surveillance apparatus and human rights violations, the committee said on Feb. 8.
The Treasury Department is likely to release its draft outbound investment regulations in the next several months, setting them up to potentially take effect before year's end, said foreign investment lawyer Jonathan Gafni of Linklaters.
Hesai Technology, the largest Chinese lidar company by sales, plans to sue the Pentagon for adding it to a list of companies with ties to China’s military (see 2402010018), the company announced Feb. 8. Hesai was added to the list “without any explanation or justification,” CEO Yifan Li said, calling the U.S. decision “unjust, capricious, and meritless.”
The U.S. and other governments have so far placed export controls only on advanced semiconductors because they may believe restrictions on a broader, more mature set of chips won’t be effective, experts said this week.
Beijing recently warned Japan not to take any moves that could disrupt supply chains with China following reports that Tokyo could soon tighten its restrictions on certain technology exports.
Technology companies, trade groups, think tanks and researchers urged the government to be cautious as it evaluates its semiconductor-related export controls and prepares new ones, warning that misguided restrictions could cede American technology leadership to China, hurt the competitiveness of U.S. companies and raise the complexity of an already fraught compliance landscape.
The U.S. may need to take stronger export control actions to stifle Chinese progress in artificial intelligence, including broader semiconductor-related restrictions, a U.S. congressional commission heard this week. But the commission was also warned about the dangers of overly broad controls on more emerging technologies, such as quantum, which experts said could hurt instead of help U.S. competition with China.
The U.S. charged four Chinese nationals this week for their parts in a yearslong conspiracy to violate export controls by smuggling electronic parts through China and to Iran.
The U.S. and the EU are continuing to prioritize export control and sanctions enforcement against Russia, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, and he suggested the EU may soon issue penalties against companies for evading the bloc’s sanctions. He also said the two sides are working on ways they can both put in place new export controls proposed at consensus-based multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they are blocked by Russia.