Commerce Department adds 11 Chinese entities to the entity list

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added to the Entity List 11 Chinese companies implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data, and genetic analyses targeted at Muslim minority groups from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Today’s action will result in these companies facing new restrictions on access to U.S.-origin items, including commodities and technology. This action will supplement BIS’s two tranches of Entity List designations in October 2019 and June 2020, actions that together added 37 parties engaged in or enabling PRC’s repression in Xinjiang.

“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.”

The Entity List is a tool utilized by BIS to restrict the export, reexport, and transfer (in-country) of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to persons (individuals, organizations, companies) reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Additional license requirements apply to exports, re-exports, and transfers (in-country) of items subject to the EAR to listed entities, and the availability of most license exceptions is limited.

The entities to be added to the Entity List in connection with the practice of forced labor involving Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the XUAR are:

• Changji Esquel Textile Co. Ltd.
  
• Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co. Ltd.
  
• Hefei Meiling Co. Ltd.
  
• Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. Ltd.
  
• Hetian Taida Apparel Co., Ltd.
  
• KTK Group
  
• Nanjing Synergy Textiles Co. Ltd.
  
• Nanchang O-Film Tech
  
• Tanyuan Technology Co. Ltd.
  

The entities to be added to the Entity List in connection with conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in XUAR are:

• Xinjiang Silk Road BGI
  
• Beijing Liuhe BGI