Ball shot down
Washington adds six Chinese companies to its blacklist
The American authorities announced on Friday that they had added six Chinese companies to their blacklist, prohibiting them from accessing American technologies and goods without authorization.
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Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez.
Getty Images via AFP
The United States added six Chinese companies to its blacklist on Friday, after a Chinese balloon flying over the United States and equipped with spy tools was destroyed, denying them access to American technology and goods without authorization.
“China’s use of high-altitude balloons violates our sovereignty and threatens the national security of the United States,” Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in the statement. Commerce Department. Washington shot down a balloon off its Atlantic coast on Saturday that had flown over sensitive military sites.
A visit to China postponed
Beijing had assured that it was a “civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological”. Footage captured by US military aircraft, however, shows it was well equipped with spy tools. This diplomatic clash had led the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken to postpone a rare visit to China.
The US blacklist on which these six Chinese companies have been placed “is a powerful tool for identifying and blocking actors who seek to use their access to global markets to harm and threaten US national security,” said the Assistant Secretary of Commerce. , Don Graves.
“We will not hesitate to use (this) list and our other regulatory and enforcement tools to protect the national security of the United States,” he said. The United States, on the orders of Joe Biden, shot down a “high-flying object” over Alaska on Friday, a White House spokesperson said, without giving details of its attack. nature or origin.
(AFP)