Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says there will be more revelations ‘soon’ regarding the cyber hack backed by a foreign government on the U.S. Treasury Department and an agency within the Commerce Department.
The U.S. is preparing to place dozens of Chinese companies, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, on a trade blacklist, citing national security concerns, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday morning.
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The Commerce Department will add about 80 companies, the majority of which are Chinese, to the so-called entity list for national defense reasons. The firms will join the likes of Huawei on a list that denies them access to U.S. technology. There are nearly 700 companies on the list, Ross said, 296 of which are Chinese and 150 of which are related to Huawei.
SMIC will also be explicitly prohibited from acquiring technology to build chips with 10-nanometer circuits and smaller, Ross said.
“What this is all about is these are companies that are tied to the People’s Liberation Army,” Ross told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. He added: “This has to do with is their access to very advanced semiconductor products.”
SMIC is the largest Chinese chip manufacturer and is a supplier to tech companies including Qualcomm and Broadcomm. Ross said the blacklist was necessary to “ensure that China, through its national champion SMIC, is not able to leverage U.S. technologies to enable indigenous advanced technology levels to support its destabilizing military activities.”
The company did not immediately respond to a FOX Business’ request for comment, but Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin condemned the move during a briefing in Beijing on Friday.
“We urge the U.S. to stop its wrongful activities cracking down on foreign companies,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
