On 26 December 2023, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced new sanctions measures under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law against the following parties for their involvement in the imposition of US restrictive measures on Chinese entities over their links to alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: US data intelligence firm, Kharon; Edmund Xu, research director of Kharon; and Nicole Morgret, a former human rights analyst at the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies.…
Background After two and a half years since the issuance of the Regulations on the Unreliable Entities List (“UEL Regulations”), the Unreliable Entities List Working Mechanism (“Mechanism”) headed by China’s Ministry of Commerce has for the first time designated two US aerospace and defense companies as “Unreliable Entities”. The notice issued by the Mechanism on February 16, 2023 announced the below measures against these Unreliable Entities: prohibition on import and export activities involving China; prohibition…
On December 10, 2021, at the Summit for Democracy, the U.S., Australia, Denmark, and Norway, released a Joint Statement announcing an Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative (“the Initiative”) to curb the misuse of technologies by certain governments. The Initiative aims to combat digital authoritarianism in countries where software and advanced surveillance technologies have been used to hack the communications of political opponents and journalists, shape public opinion, and censor information the government deems threatening. In…
On December 16, 2021, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated eight Chinese tech companies to the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (“NS-CMIC”) list pursuant to Executive Order 13959, as amended by Executive Order 14032, for their alleged involvement in supporting surveillance of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, China. On the next day, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) also added 37 new parties to the…