By Colin Aamot
The Biden administration recently removed restrictions on 27 Chinese companies that prevented those companies from purchasing American technology that could potentially be turned against the U.S. A detailed examination by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project reveals connections between several of these companies and the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance and military programs.
The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security removed these companies from what is known as the Unverified List. The list was designed to prevent the potential misuse of U.S. technology and products by restricting certain foreign entities from purchasing items that could serve a dual use—in other words, that could have both civilian and military uses.
Export restrictions are applied to civilian technology that could be adapted for “military, terrorism or potential WMD [weapons of mass destruction]-related applications.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Bureau of Industry and Security became more active in applying restrictions on Russian companies to prevent Russia from procuring dual-use equipment. However, this was generally seen as too little too late, as Russian President Vladimir Putin had already procured significant amounts of dual-use equipment prior to the invasion.
With China, the Biden administration has been less than transparent with its justification for relaxing the restrictions. The administration said it removed the 27 companies from the Unverified List by establishing their “bona fides” through end-use checks of how they were using the equipment they purchased. However, no specific mechanism for conducting these checks or for how the administration would verify them has been made public.
Read the entire article at The Daily Signal
