Another Chinese school dodges US software export controls, as Beihang University gets MATLAB engineering program
- Despite being on an American sanctions list, Beijing’s top aeronautics college used third parties to buy US engineering software called MATLAB
- Compliance issues for sellers of items under US export controls could grow more complicated, observers say
According to online tender documents obtained by the South China Morning Post, the institution, known as Beihang University, used third parties in China to download a product known as MATLAB, a leading programming language used in engineering modelling and simulation. Developed by US firm MathWorks, it has uses in making semiconductors. Beihang also has a MATLAB course listed on its webpage.
Besides MATLAB, Beihang obtained other US software including Adobe’s Creative Cloud by using third-party vendors, in what international trade lawyers describe as a common practice to evade US sanctions. Organisations on the US Entity List are barred from access to regulated items, such as software, unless an export licence is granted.
The only way an organisation on the Entity List could obtain US software without violating export control laws was to have a licence from the bureau, said Kristine Pirnia, who leads the export controls and sanctions practice at US law firm Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg in San Diego.
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Pirnia said “it seems unlikely” that an export licence could have been issued in this case, but added it was not possible to draw conclusions without knowing the details. She did say that sanctioned companies often got around regulations through third-party vendors.