After U.S. Blacklisting of Huawei, China Plans ‘Unreliable’ Foreigners List

05/31/2019

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Lin Zhu, Yoko Kubota | Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China escalated an already spiraling trade dispute with the U.S., saying it would create a blacklist of foreign entities that harm Chinese businesses, in apparent retaliation for Washington’s clampdown on Huawei Technologies Co.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday it would set up an “unreliable entity list” composed of foreign companies, organizations and individuals. Named to the list will be entities that violate market rules and contracts, disrupt supplies to Chinese companies for “non-commercial purposes” and otherwise damage Chinese business and national interests, said a ministry spokesman in comments posted on its website.

Details of which entities would be cited and what the consequences or punishments of being listed would be weren’t specified, though the ministry said more information would be released soon.

China’s move echoes an action taken by Washington two weeks ago against Huawei, the big Chinese maker of telecommunications gear and smartphones. The U.S. Commerce Department placed Huawei and its affiliates on an “entity list,” thereby requiring suppliers to receive licenses to provide American technology to Huawei—licenses that the agency says wouldn’t be easy to obtain.

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