Seven Chinese supercomputer organizations blacklisted by the US government

April 9th 2021

2 mins read

Seven Chinese supercomputer organizations blacklisted by the US government

Image source: Getty Images

Seems like the US-China trade drama is not dying anytime soon. A press release by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Thursday, April 8, 2021, read that the commerce department added seven supercomputer organizations and companies to their Entity List. The action from the commerce department means that US companies are now not allowed to supply equipment or do any sort of business with those seven Chinese supercomputer companies. According to the department, the entities were related to the Chinese military and conducting activities that contrast the national security or foreign policy interests of the US.

The seven Chinese supercomputer entities listed under the US “Entity List” are:

Tianjin Phytium Information Technology
Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center
Sunway Microelectronics
The National Supercomputing Center Jinan
The National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen
The National Supercomputing Center Wuxi
The National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou

The published announcement read that the above-mentioned seven entities are involved in making supercomputers for the Chinese military which will help create weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and disrupt military modernization efforts.

“Supercomputing capabilities are vital for the development of many – perhaps almost all – modern weapons and national security systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons. The Department of Commerce will use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from leveraging U.S. technologies to support these destabilizing military modernization efforts.” - Gina M. Raimondo U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

It will be interesting to see how China will respond to the recent trade ban as it is not the first time one of their company has fallen into the US Entity List. The growing restriction from the US means that China now has to rely more on its homegrown technologies. This also shows how supercomputer technologies have developed and can also be a factor in a country’s security threats.

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