Electronics distribution company Broad Tech System and its president and owner, Tao Jiang of Riverside, California, pleaded guilty Jan. 11 to participating in a conspiracy to illegally ship chemicals made or distributed by a Rhode Island-based company to a Chinese firm with ties to the Chinese military, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island announced. Jiang and Broad Tech admitted to violating the Export Control Act and conspiring to commit money laundering.
A 2022 Bureau of Industry and Security policy change has continued to lead to improved Chinese cooperation with BIS end-use checks, an agency official said Jan. 23.
Although U.S. lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to develop a set of sanctions it could immediately impose against China if Beijing were to invade Taiwan, experts told a think tank this week that it remains unclear how exactly the U.S. would respond, including whether it would use military force.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week removed three companies from the Unverified List after it was able to successfully complete end-use checks.
The Treasury Department declined a request by the two leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions against leading Chinese surveillance company Hikvision for human rights violations, Chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security believes its export controls are adequate to protect all 19 of the critical and emerging technology categories identified by the White House as important to national security (see 2202090016), a BIS official said on Jan. 17.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has asked the Smithsonian Institution to provide more information about its bird genetics research partnership with China-based Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), saying he’s concerned about BGI’s ties to its country’s military and what he calls its aggressive data collection activities.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week unveiled a new set of changes to its voluntary self-disclosure policies that it hopes will allow compliance professionals to spend more time and money preventing serious export violations and less resources on reporting minor ones. The agency also said it has seen a sharp uptick in self-disclosures of serious violations over the last year and has been getting more tips from businesses about possible violations committed by their competitors.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Members of the U.K. Parliament this week questioned whether the government should be imposing more restrictions on China, including through human rights sanctions on Hong Kong officials and export restrictions on a broader range of Chinese technology companies. They also urged the U.K. to share the results of a possible review of its arms export policies toward Israel, which at least one member said hasn’t been transparent.