Today the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 24 Chinese state-owned companies to the Entity List for their role in the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea. The Entity List prohibits the export, re-export, and transfer (in-country) of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to these companies without a license from BIS. Five of the newly designated companies are subsidiaries of China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC), a leading contractor for China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” to develop infrastructure and trade links globally.
This action is the most recent in a series of confrontational U.S. trade control measures targeting China. An unnamed senior U.S. official described CCCC as “the Huawei of infrastructure.”
BIS added 36 other companies to the list, including parties in France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Switzerland, and the UAE for activities deemed contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.