U.S. blacklists 34 Chinese language entities over human rights abuses, brain-control weapons

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration stated Thursday it imposed commerce restrictions on greater than 30 Chinese language analysis institutes and entities over human rights violations and the alleged improvement of applied sciences, corresponding to brain-control weapons, that undermine U.S. nationwide safety.

The Commerce Division accused China’s Academy of Army Medical Sciences and 11 of its analysis institutes of utilizing biotechnology “to assist Chinese language navy finish makes use of and finish customers, to incorporate purported brain-control weaponry,” in line with a discover within the Federal Register.

The discover doesn’t elaborate additional on the alleged brain-control weaponry.

“The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Sadly, the PRC is selecting to make use of these applied sciences to pursue management over its individuals and its repression of members of ethnic and spiritual minority teams,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo wrote in an announcement referring to the Folks’s Republic of China and human rights abuses in China’s far-west area of Xinjiang.

The State Division has beforehand described the abuse of Uyghurs and members of different Muslim minorities as within the Xinjiang area as “widespread, state-sponsored pressured labor” and “mass detention.”

Earlier this month, the White Home introduced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing “ongoing genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity in Xinjiang and different human rights abuses.”

Beijing denies that it has abused non secular and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

The Commerce Division listed 4 extra Chinese language firms to its Entity Record for his or her function in modernizing China’s navy, which runs opposite to U.S. nationwide safety and overseas coverage pursuits.

The division additionally added 5 different Chinese language firms for allegedly “buying or making an attempt to accumulate know-how from the US to assist modernize the Folks’s Liberation Military.”

U.S. officers have lengthy complained that Chinese language mental property theft has value the financial system billions of {dollars} in income and hundreds of jobs. They’ve additionally stated that it threatens nationwide safety. In the meantime, Beijing maintains that it doesn’t have interaction in mental property theft.

The Chinese language Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

The Commerce Division additionally took motion in opposition to entities positioned in Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey for allegedly “diverting or making an attempt to divert U.S. objects to Iran’s navy packages.”

“Particularly, these entities are part of a community used to produce or try to produce Iran with U.S-origin objects that will finally present materials assist to Iran’s protection industries, in violation of U.S. export controls,” the discover stated.

In complete, the Commerce Division took motion in opposition to 34 entities in China, three in Georgia, one in Malaysia and two in Turkey.