Washington blacklists Chinese nuclear firms for ‘helping military acquire US technology’
- Four businesses added to Entity List amid wider crackdown on use of nuclear materials and components
The US added four Chinese nuclear entities to a trade blacklist, accusing them of helping to acquire advanced American technology for military use in China.
China General Nuclear Power Group and its subsidiaries China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC), China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute and Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute were added to the so-called Entity List, according to a Federal Register notice published on Wednesday.
The move follows a crackdown on US exports of civilian nuclear components and materials in recent years. In 2016 the Department of Justice accused China General Nuclear Power, the country’s largest nuclear group, of a plot dating back to the 1990s to steal US technology.
The Pentagon has also warned about China’s plans to introduce floating nuclear power plants on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
In October last year the Trump administration also announced that it was imposing further restrictions on exports of nuclear-related technology to “prevent China’s illegal diversion of US civil nuclear technology for military or other unauthorised purposes.”