Biden administration places top Chinese military institute on export blacklist over its use of surveillance, ‘brain-control’ technology
By Ellen Nakashima and Aaron Schaffer
16 December 2021
EXCERPTS
The Biden administration said Thursday it is adding China’s top military medical research institute to an export blacklist in response to concerns about Beijing’s use of emerging technologies such as biometrics and “brain-control” weapons in ways that U.S. officials say threaten national security.
The Commerce Department added the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes to the Entity List, which bans the export of American technology to the entity unless the exporter receives a government license. The academy and its research institutes focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military, officials said.
—————————————————
Under China’s “military civil fusion” strategy, Beijing is seeking to use emerging biotechnologies to support future military applications, including sponsoring research on gene editing, human performance enhancement, brain machine interfaces and biological materials, the official said.
“We’ve had concerns about China’s activity in the biotechnology space for quite a while,” the official said, adding that targeting firms and bolstering the U.S. biotechnology sector will be a “continued area of focus for us.”
Treasury’s action barred U.S. investment in the following companies: Cloudwalk Technology Co.; Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd.; Leon Technology Co. Ltd.; Megvii Technology Ltd.; Netposa Technologies Ltd.; SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd.; Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co. Ltd. and Yitu Ltd. All were earlier placed on Commerce’s Entity List.
