The Donald Trump administration is reportedly holding off on adding more than 100 Chinese corporations, including the artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek and memory chip corporation ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), to a trade blacklist.
Reuters reported on the 16th, citing multiple sources, that the U.S. government is not adding Chinese corporations deemed national security threats, including DeepSeek and CXMT, to the Entity List.
The Entity List is a trade blacklist that restricts exports by U.S. corporations. If a U.S. corporation wants to export products or technology to a corporation on the list, it must obtain a separate license.
Since October last year, the United States has not added new corporations to the Entity List, the longest pause in more than a decade.
Sources said the Trump administration is delaying the release of these corporations' names to avoid escalating tensions with China.
Kevin Currand, a former U.S. Commerce Department official, said, "The fact that no corporations have been added to the Entity List since October last year shows that trade policy is overwhelming the use of a key national security tool."
Philip Luck, a global supply chain expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also said, "With no new listings, there is a high likelihood that U.S. technology will flow to counterparts that can use it in a hostile manner against the United States."
DeepSeek, cited in this matter, is a China-affiliated startup that has shaken the global tech industry with a low-cost AI model. A senior State Department official earlier told Reuters that DeepSeek has supported activities by the Chinese military and intelligence services and attempted to illegally access advanced U.S. semiconductors through shell companies in Southeast Asia.
CXMT is China's largest memory chip corporation and was designated by the U.S. Department of Defense during the Biden administration as tied to the Chinese military. In addition, Chinese corporations that supplied parts to a Russian drone recovered in Poland last year, corporations that sold Nvidia semiconductors to Chinese universities, and corporations that manufacture and sell Chinese military drones and robot dogs were also reportedly included among potential sanctions targets.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce said in a statement that it is "responding to malicious actors every day using a range of policy and enforcement tools, including the Entity List."