A former State Department official who advised on sanctions and money laundering, who also is a co-founder of Sayari Labs, a financial intelligence and commercial data provider, said that Hudson Institute will produce a paper on creating a broad sanctions program for China, complete with the kind of language that would allow it to be executive-order ready.
Exports to China
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. this week sanctioned 10 companies and four people with ties to Iran’s unmanned drone program, including Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, the Iranian-based leader of the network who helped illegally procure hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of U.S. and foreign-made components to Iran. Along with the new sanctions, DOJ charged Ardakani and his accomplice, China-based Gary Lam, for violating U.S. export controls.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added 13 Chinese companies to its Unverified List after it was unable to verify the “legitimacy and reliability” of the entities through end-use checks, including their ability to responsibly receive controlled U.S. exports. If BIS is unable to complete an end-use check on those companies within 60 days, it can move them to the more restrictive Entity List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week removed four Chinese companies from the Unverified List after it was able to successfully complete end-use checks.
If U.S. policymakers become tempted to use sanctions to prevent a potential conflict with China, they should expect to face a wide range of challenges in wielding such economic tools, speakers said at a Dec. 15 event hosted by the Center for a New American Security.
Although scholars from the U.S., Japan and South Korea said the three countries largely agree on China-related semiconductor export controls, they said those conversations could grow more difficult as the U.S. continues to restrict a broader set of advanced chips and chipmaking equipment.
Chinese chip designer Brite Semiconductor is partly owned by a company on the Entity List yet still buys sensitive U.S. technology from two California software companies and receives funding from a U.S. venture capital firm backed by Wells Fargo, Reuters reported Dec. 13.
The semiconductor industry is pushing the Biden administration for more transparency surrounding its future plans for export controls on chips and chip tools, saying the uncertainty is causing more foreign customers to avoid using advanced U.S.-origin technology. The industry also warned that China has seen a sharp uptick in domestic orders for chips and chipmaking equipment following the most recent U.S. controls, potentially jeopardizing sales to the American semiconductor industry’s largest market.
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 250 people and companies supplying Russia’s military in violation of U.S. sanctions and export controls, targeting procurement networks in China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. The Treasury and State departments said many of the newly sanctioned companies supplied Russia with goods listed on the Commerce Department’s list of common high-priority items, including electronic components, while others sold Russia advanced weapons and military technology.