By Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Commerce Department is considering placing more Chinese companies, including ChangXin Memory (CXMT), on its restricted export list, a person familiar with the matter said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is also looking at adding subsidiaries of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. to the “Entity List”, the person said.
Timing of move has been complicated by a recent trade deal between the U.S. and China, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the news.
Companies on the list cannot receive goods or technology exports without a license, which is generally denied. Companies are added for activities viewed as contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.
The Biden administration added more than two dozen Chinese entities to the list in January, including Zhipu AI, a developer of large language models, and Sophgo, a company whose TSMC-made chip was illegally incorporated into a Huawei artificial intelligence processor.
The Commerce Department at that time also strengthened controls on the flow of chips to China to better prevent diversion to Huawei.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Stephen Coates)
