US blacklists 37 Chinese companies

In a move that will increase tensions with China, the Joe Biden administration added 37 Chinese companies to the trade blacklist, including some units of genetics company BGI and cloud technology company Inspur.

The US Department of Commerce, which oversees export controls, said BGI Research and BGI Technology Solutions (Hong Kong) were listed because they claimed they posed a “significant risk” by supporting Chinese government surveillance efforts.

“Given the genetic data collection and analysis activities of these units, they pose a significant risk of being part of China’s military programs,” the ministry said.

In an earlier Reuters report, it was claimed that BGI collected genetic data from millions of women as part of a study on population characteristics and cooperated with the Chinese military.

Among those blacklisted is Forensics Genomics International, the forensics subsidiary of BGI.

The Commerce Department accuses Inspur of buying or attempting to buy products from the United States to help China’s military modernization efforts. (Reuters)