On Wednesday, the U.S. government official announced the addition of four Chinese companies to an export blacklist for seeking AI chips for China’s military.

During a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, an export enforcement official stated that these companies have been providing AI chips to China. AI chips are used for modernization in the Chinese military and its military intelligence capabilities. These companies will be added to the Commerce Department Entity List. This requires suppliers to get licenses to ship technologies to the companies. The four companies are listed as LINKZOL (Beijing) Technology Co, Xi’an Like Innovative Information Technology Co, Beijing Anwise Technology Co, and SITONHOLY (Tianjin Co). Companies are added to the U.S. entity list when they are considered a threat to U.S. foreign policy and national security interests. Tensions between the U.S. and China continue to deepen over the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty and the South China Sea. However, military contracts between the U.S. and China did resume late last year amidst the tensions. The procurement of AI chips is just the latest effort by Chinese President Xi Jinping to modernize the Chinese military.

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https://www.reuters.com/business/us-restricts-trade-with-11-entities-russia-china-uae-government-notice-says-2024-04-10/