The United States bans trade with Chinese supercomputers manufacturers

The US Economy Department is imposing sanctions on seven Chinese supercomputing companies. The manufacturers are on the list of companies that may be associated with the Chinese military.

According to the ministry, companies are building supercomputers used by Chinese military entities and are spreading the destabilizing military modernization efforts and programs for weapons of mass destruction, Reuters writes.

Supercomputers are vital to developing weapons

In a statement, Minister Gina Raimondo said supercomputers are essential to developing all modern weapons and defense systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons. The new rules take effect immediately, but they do not apply to goods from US suppliers that are already in transit.

The companies involved are Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, National Jinan Supercomputing Center, Shenzhen National Supercomputing Center, Wuxi National Supercomputing Center, and Zhengzhou National Supercomputing Center.

China is taking action

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing will take necessary measures to protect the rights and interests of companies. “US containment and repression cannot stop the progress of scientific and technological development in China,” the spokesman said.

Several major Chinese companies have been blacklisted

The United States’ hard-line stance toward China began during the presidency of Donald Trump. Trump takes full advantage of the list of companies cooperating with the Chinese military. American companies that want to collaborate with the companies on this list first need a hard-to-obtain license.

One of the largest companies to make the list is the electronics giant Huawei. This company had a very hard time due to trade restrictions and has now had to separate a portion of its smartphone offering. Other Chinese companies on the list are chip maker SMIC and DJI drone maker.