China Says It Will Take ‘Necessary Measures’ on U.S. Blacklist

The Chinese government said it will take “necessary measures” to safeguard the interests of domestic companies, after fresh U.S. restrictions on a blacklist of 33 companies took effect Friday.

Without specifying what the measures would be, the Ministry of Commerce issued a statement saying that it opposed moves to make 33 Chinese companies subject to curbs on access to U.S. technology on the grounds that they have ties to the military or are involved in human rights violations.

The U.S. “has repeatedly used so-called national security grounds, abused export controls and other measures to strike at companies in other countries, causing serious damage to the international economic and trade order,” according to the statement. “This does not help China, the U.S. or the world.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce in May expanded its so-called entities list, which restricts access to American technology and other items, to include 24 Chinese companies and universities it said had ties to the military and another 9 entities it accused of human rights violations in Xinjiang. China has for the past year threated to produce its own “unreliable entities” list, but has so far not done so.