The Department of Commerce announced late Monday that it will add 28 Chinese governmental and commercial organizations to the so-called “Entity List (blacklist) for engaging in or enabling activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States.”
In a statement, the Department of Commerce said, “this action constricts the export of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to entities that have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in China’s campaign targeting Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).”
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross stressed in this regard “the US Government and Department of Commerce cannot and will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities within China.
“This action will ensure that our technologies, fostered in an environment of individual liberty and free enterprise, are not used to repress defenseless minority populations,” he said. This comes as the White House announced that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin will welcome a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu on Thursday for continued trade negotiations between the two countries.
