Washington — When Russian troops invaded Ukraine about five months ago, the Byden administration led dozens of governments to ban the export of advanced technology to Russia, hindering its economic and military development. ..
Currently, the U.S. government is taking action to increase export restrictions to China and other countries when businesses and groups can threaten U.S. national security or violate human rights. We are using the lessons learned. President Biden and his aides call China the United States’ biggest long-term rival, surpassing Russia.
This effort involves expanding the so-called export restrictions and involving partner countries. It also aims to redefine which technologies are considered confidential or important and may be used by the military and security agencies. For example, artificial intelligence.
In developing a strategy for China, U.S. authorities will consider not only the traditional military use of technology, but also the role of Chinese companies in creating surveillance nations, building security infrastructure, and using forced labor camps to suppress ethnic groups. doing. A minority in areas such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet.
“As China becomes more aggressive, more warlike, and more active in the tech sector, managing relations with China through export control is becoming more important,” said the Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce. Alan F. Esteves, who is responsible for the event, said: The Department of Commerce, which oversees export control, said at an event hosted by the New American Security Center last month.
“We need to ensure that the United States maintains a technical overmatch,” he said. “In other words, China cannot build the capacity to use against us, or about it, against neighboring countries in any kind of conflict.”
US officials say the use of export controls in Russia is perhaps the greatest success so far in a large-scale campaign of economic punishment for President Vladimir Putin and his army. The United States and its partners have broadly restricted the sending of semiconductors, aircraft parts, equipment for the oil and gas industry, and other commodities to Russia in order to cripple the Russian army and its strategic industries. I am imposing.
In China, efforts are more focused. Officials say their goal is not to undermine the broader Chinese economy, but rather to limit China’s access to technologies that will contribute to its military and scientific progress. In itself, it could help prevent armed conflict, US officials say.
“My goal is to prevent China from using that technology to advance its troops and modernize them,” said Esteves, a former Pentagon official, at the Commerce Department in Washington last week. I told reporters at the policy meeting. Semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing.
However, China is the world’s second-largest economy, and trade restrictions on China carry far greater risks than Russia imposes. U.S. executives warn that widespread export restrictions could cause serious disruption to global commerce, and some of the key products China supplies to the U.S. and other countries, including certain minerals. Encourage them to impose their own restrictions.
Read more about the relationship between Asia and the United States
And the widespread use of controls can undermine American technical leadership and market dominance in the long run by encouraging foreign customers to find other sources.
However, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo declared at a policy meeting that export control was “at the red center of the best way to protect democracy.”
she Emphasize the influence of control Regarding Russia, he said global semiconductor exports to Russia would decline by 90% and the fleet of commercial aircraft could soon decline. “We also know that another dictatorship, China, is closely watching our response,” she added.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration blacklisted five Chinese companies to continue to support Russia’s military industry sector. The U.S. government was the first to take action against Chinese companies to support Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February, but U.S. officials said the Chinese government and most companies were in the U.S. He states that he seems to be observing the sanctions led.
Even before these actions, the Biden administration doubled the Trump administration’s policy of exercising export control as a club against Chinese companies.
In 2018, Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Commerce to increase restrictions on sensitive American technology flowing abroad.
Some lawmakers say the government is moving too slowly, but departments under both the Trump and Biden administrations are actively using more targeted tools called entity lists. .. The supplier obtains a license to sell the goods.
The Trump administration has added prominent Chinese technology companies Huawei and SMIC to its list.
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Commerce Department under Mr. Biden was adding China-based companies and organizations to the list at a much faster pace than any other country. Of the 475 foreign companies added since January 2021, 107 are based in China, according to a new aggregate of data provided by the agency to the New York Times. In contrast, the administration added 23 Russian-based entities to the list before the war, and soon afterwards added 252, and imposed broader restrictions on the entire category of technology products.
The government has also blacklisted companies based in Pakistan, Belarus, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and the United Kingdom, but the number is much smaller.
Most of the China-based entities listed during the Biden administration have been determined by U.S. authorities to have or are involved in military roles. Systematic human rights violations..I have some Suspicious relationship US officials say Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and countries with nuclear programs that the United States is trying to curb. Some are associated with aggressive behavior in conflict areas of the South China Sea.
The United States has also extended the scope of export restrictions far beyond the borders of the United States. Companies around the world are banned from exporting certain items made with American technology to several listed companies, including Russian military groups and Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. The United States can also limit the export of foreign products, including certain quantities of US products, to listed companies.
“One of the lessons learned from using this tool on Huawei is that it can be a very powerful mechanism,” says Samm Sacks. researcher About Yale Law School and New American Technology Policy. “It captures many third-country suppliers.”
Some U.S. lawmakers say that further technical restrictions are a powerful tool for exercising against Beijing, and the threat of expanding those restrictions thwarts potential hostility by Chinese leaders to Taiwan. Says it may be useful. However, some analysts have warned of possible retaliation from China.
“As the United States continues to use areas outside the territory of regulation, the heightened threat of a regulatory” arms race “with China in particular adds to the already volatile business environment,” said a senior at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Associate Jeanette Chu said. And international research, I have written March.
“The” tit-for-tat “nature of export control and sanctions today risks compromising the effectiveness of export control, leaving policymakers with limited options,” she added.
The Chinese government has accused Washington of using sanctions, but is increasingly using its own form of economic sanctions to harm countries that are in a position contrary to Beijing’s political views. Recent targets include Australia, Japan, South Korea and Norway. China blocked exports and imports to Lithuania when Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in the capital last year.
In June 2021, Beijing enacted the “Anti-Foreign Sanctions Act” aimed at punishing businesses and individuals who comply with foreign sanctions against China. In addition, the Chinese government has widely used export control laws.
China lags behind the United States in many technical areas, but is catching up rapidly. In some areas, such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and 5G communications, China is at or near the forefront. And we plan to overtake the United States in the next few years with national spending on R & D.
“Science and technology innovation has become a major battlefield for international strategic contests, and competition for the highest peaks of science and technology is more intense than ever,” said China’s President Xi Jinping. Said in a speech May 2021.
Biden administration officials say the export restrictions imposed on Russia show that the strength of US action comes from coordination with partner countries.
At Mr. Biden’s Summit for Democracy in December 2021, the United States, Australia, Denmark and Norway announced that they would begin building a new export control policy program to limit technology to go to prestigious governments engaged in human rights infringement. did. The United States has had other discussions in trade and technical dialogue with the European Union.
Currently the most prominent world export system, Wassenaar ArrangementAims to control the sale of technology that can be used not only for military purposes but also for commercial purposes, but critics say it has drawbacks, such as Russia’s membership.
Estevez said last month that a new multilateral system for export control must work with partners, as many countries impose the same restrictions. “As we all know, even if you block half of the river, the water is still flowing,” he added.
However, Martin Chorsenpa, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, warned that many countries with deep trade relations with China could resist efforts to impose broad export restrictions on China. ..
“I don’t think you’ll see the level of unanimity that sanctions against Russia will have, so it will run the risk of splitting the coalition,” he said.
And the possibility of further restrictions on China has already raised some concerns among US executives.
Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said the business community was “sticking to support the multilateral use of sanctions against Russia given the provocative and brutal aggression of Ukraine against Russia. “There are more complex and subtle differences in our views on China.”
“While the business community is deeply concerned about China’s predatory and market distortion policies, we must also recognize that the two largest economies are highly integrated,” he said. .. “Therefore, the effects of China’s widespread segregation or widespread sanctions will be much more volatile.”
Julian E. Burns Report that contributed.
