China to unveil new measure to protect tech firms targeted in trade war
- Study is under way to set up so-called national technological security management list, with more details to come ‘in the near future’, Xinhua says
- It comes days after Beijing said it would blacklist ‘unreliable’ foreign entities
The so-called national technological security management list aimed to “more effectively forestall and defuse national security risks”, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, was quoted as saying.
The Xinhua report on Saturday did not explain what the new list would include, when it would be introduced, or how it could help fend off growing national security risks posed by US President Donald Trump’s escalating tariff war and bans on Chinese firms’ technology purchases.
It said a study on how to set up the list system was already under way and further details would be available “in the near future”. The move was based on China’s national security legislation and other related laws and regulations, the report added.
The agency followed with a separate report late on Saturday night which quoted the commission as saying that the list was needed because “there were certain countries which have taken extreme measures to disrupt international technological cooperation”.
“Establishing the national technological security management list is meant to safeguard the security of [China’s] core and leading technologies, and to build a solid and safe defence shield,” the commission said. “So we can guard against certain countries using China’s own technologies to suppress our national development.”