US blacklists four more Chinese firms for allegedly being controlled by country's military

The Trump administration on Thursday listed four more Chinese companies operating in the United States as entities being controlled by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The companies included in the list are China Construction Technology Co. Ltd. (CCTC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC). SMIC was also sanctioned by the US in September this year as the country declared it a military-end user and made it mandatory for American companies to obtain a license in order to deal with it. 

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"The Department is determined to highlight and counter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Military-Civil Fusion development strategy, which supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise acquired and developed by even those PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities," US Department of Defence said in a statement.

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China International Engineering Consulting Corp. (CIECC) and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) are the other two companies included in the blacklist. So far, the Department of Defence has blacklisted over 30 Chinese companies and has said that it will continue to update the list with additional entities. 

Huawei connection

Meanwhile, the blacklisting of SMIC as a Chinese military-controlled company has come as another blow to Huawei as it is one of the major chip suppliers of the telecom giant. Trump administration sees Huawei as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state. The US government in the past has imposed various sanctions on the company in order to prevent it from doing business in the country. 

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The US has been constantly lobbying in ally nations to prevent Huawei from setting up 5G network bases in their countries, including the United Kingdom and the European Union. Huawei was founded by Ren Zhengfei, who was formerly employed by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and is still considered close to the military by the US. 

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