The Day at a Glance | May 25 2020

US adds 33 Chinese entities to its blacklist

On Saturday, the US Department of Commerce added 24 Chinese companies and Universities suspected of having ties with the military, and 9 other entities accused of violating human rights in Xianjing. The companies and organizations on this list will not have access to US goods and technology. China condemned this action this morning through its Foreign Minister, who urged the US to amend its mistakes, eliminate the decision and stop interfering with Chinese internal affairs. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured that the US is pushing the relationship with China to a new “cold war”. It`s feared that this measure could contribute to further decouple the technology sector in both countries, with sanctions concentrated on cyber security and videotaping companies. US actions carried out in recent days (sanctions on Huawei, for example) have increasingly politicized trade relations between both countries and have increased the risk of seeing China retaliate. Chinese media speculate that the country could respond with proportional measures and announce a “blacklist” of its own, a measure that had been designed since mid 2019 in midst of the trade war; even though this was never made official. US companies like Apple and Qualcomm could be included in the list; however, there are no official versions that have confirmed this.