US adds dozens of Chinese entities to export restrictions list, including Inspur units

The United States added six subsidiaries of Inspur Group, China's leading cloud computing and big data service provider, and dozens of other Chinese entities to its export restriction list on Tuesday.

The Inspur units were listed for contributing to the development of supercomputers for the Chinese military, the Commerce Department said in a posting. Five of the subsidiaries are based in China and one in Taiwan. Inspur Group itself was placed on the list in 2023.

The Inspur units are among about 80 companies and institutes added to the export control list on Tuesday. Over 50 are based in China. Others are in Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The listings are intended to restrict China's ability to develop high-performance computing capabilities, quantum technologies and advanced AI, and impede China’s development of its hypersonic weapons program.

"We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives," U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.

China condemns move

China's foreign ministry in response to an enquiry on Wednesday condemned the U.S. move and said the country will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

The move is "not conducive to creating an atmosphere for the two sides to solve problems through dialog and cooperation," China's commerce ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said on Tuesday that it firmly opposed "these acts taken by the U.S. and demand that it immediately stop using military-related issues as pretexts to politicize, instrumentalize and weaponize trade and tech issues."

The Inspur Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

'Wrong decision'

Other companies were added to the list for acquiring U.S.-origin items to advance China's quantum technology capabilities and for selling products to companies that supply other listed parties, including Huawei, the tech conglomerate viewed as at the center of China's AI ambitions.

The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a Chinese non-profit new research and development institution that was also targeted by the United States, said on Wednesday that it was shocked and demanded that relevant U.S. departments withdraw the "wrong" decision.