With friends like US, who needs enemies

The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 more Chinese entities to the Entity List, claiming that the move demonstrated its commitment to safeguarding US national security. Tellingly, it also said that the new additions were in support of US foreign policy, which, as evident to all, aims to curtail China’s development.

ThenewadditionsbringthenumberofChineseentities the Joe Biden administration has put on the Entity List to 355 — more than any prior administration, as a statement announcing the move proudly boasts.

Highlighting the political nature of the administration’s latest additions to the list in the run-up to the presidential election in November, 11 entities were added for their involvement in China’s “High Altitude Balloon” program, which BIS said poses significant national security concerns.

Despite later acknowledging that the balloon that entered US airspace early last year was a wayward meteorologic balloon, it seems that the administration is going to hype up its scaremongering on that score ahead of the election. The latest additions build on previous actions the US took in February 2023 to target China’s aerospace programs. The distance between a weather ballon and aerospace cause just exposes the extent to which the US is ready to stoop to a new low to contain China’s technological progress.

Other Chinese entities being targeted include 22 for their participation in China’s quantum technology advancements, which is aimed at trying to thwart China’s progress in quantum technology research, development and application, where the US side has no obvious advantages over China.

Meanwhile, along with the enlarging of the Entity List, US media report that the Biden administration is to raise tariffs on electric vehicles from China from 25 percent to about 100 percent in the coming days, and batteries and solar panels from China will also be targeted. These protectionist moves cannot spearhead US green technology’s competitiveness, and they will only hinder global green transitions as a whole.

Such “blatant economic coercion and bullying in the field of technology”, as Beijing described the moves, came shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrapped up their visits to China, supposedly as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to repair ties and manage differences responsibly by leveraging the role of consultation mechanisms in such areas as diplomacy, economy, finance and commerce that have ostensibly agreed to restore or establish to resolve bilateral disputes.

Biden has repeatedly claimed that his administration does not want to curtail China’s development, and does not seek “decoupling” from China. But the latest rounds of new sanctions and threats of exorbitant tariffs on Chinese green products clearly show that the Biden administration is hellbent on saying one thing and doing another in handling China relations, feeling no qualms about overdrawing further on its already bankrupt credibility. That leaves China no choice but to take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, and reevaluate the US’ commitment as well as its own input to repair ties.