China May Restrict Tech Access in Spiraling U.S. Trade Dispute

 

The People's Daily newspaper said Sunday that the system will establish a solid firewall to strengthen the nation's ability to innovate and to accelerate the development of key technologies.

 

'China ... will never allow certain countries to use China's technology to contain China's development and suppress Chinese enterprises,' the key paper of the ruling Communist Party said, without directly talking about the United States. No details have been released about what China is calling a national technological security management list. The plan was declared Saturday evening in a brief three-paragraph dispatch by the official Xinhua News Agency.

 

The target is to forestall and defuse national security risks more effectively, Xinhua said, adding that detailed measures is going to be unmasked in the near future. The initiative follows U.S. moves to restrict sales to Huawei Technologies and other Chinese tech firms on national security grounds.

 

The U.S. Commerce Department last month added Huawei to its list of entities that are engaged in activities despite U.S. national security or foreign policy interests. Because of this, any sale of U.S. technology to Huawei will require Commerce Department approval. China responded by saying its Commerce Ministry would develop its own list of foreign entities that it regards as 'unreliable.'

 

This weekend's announcement of plans for a technological security management list is plainly relevant to the unreliable entities list, the state-owned Global Times newspaper said in an editorial posted online Sunday.

 

It said the act would provide a legal basis to manage technology exports and counter American supply cutoffs to a couple of Chinese companies. 'Since 2018, the U.S. has repeatedly drawn on its domestic law to exert pressure on Chinese high-tech enterprises,' the English-language editorial read in part. 'China's countermeasures against the U.S. require more legal weapons.'

 

The two largest economies appear as far apart as ever in their dispute, though U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he held a beneficial meeting Sunday with the head of China's central bank. In a Twitter post, Mnuchin said he and Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, had a 'candid' discussion about trade difficulties. The post showed the two shaking hands and smiling.

 

They met on the sidelines of the G-20 finance meeting in Fukuoka, Japan.

 

Mnuchin earlier urged China to rejoin talks on the dispute that have stalled after 11 rounds of negotiations. He said no talks were scheduled, however, and that major progress on the stalemate may likely have to wait for a meeting of Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping later this month.

 

This article is originally posted on tronserve.com