All 12 Republicans on the House Select Committee on China, including Chairman John Moolenaar of Michigan, urged the Treasury Department May 31 to investigate whether six Chinese companies should be sanctioned for helping Iran’s military and energy sectors evade U.S. sanctions.
Chinese and Japanese officials this week held the second meeting of the China-Japan Export Control Dialogue Mechanism, where they discussed “issues of concern in the field of export control,” according to unofficial translations from China’s Commerce Ministry and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Officials at the Shanghai meeting also held a question-and-answer session with Japanese and Chinese companies. The two nations “agreed to continue to maintain close communication, deepen the understanding of each other's export control systems, improve the transparency of export control measures, and ensure that normal trade is not hindered,” China said.
The U.S. arrested and charged Chinese national YunHe Wang with leading a cybercrime network that allowed people to anonymously commit crimes, including violations of export control laws, DOJ said May 29.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged the Biden administration in a joint statement May 30 to sanction anyone involved in detaining, trying and torturing political prisoners in Venezuela, including judges, clerks, prison guards and interrogators. The senators said the Venezuelan government has increased its persecution of human rights and political activists in the run-up to the country’s July 28 presidential election.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said May 29 that he plans to introduce legislation designating the Palestinian Authority as a foreign terrorist organization for paying Palestinians who commit terrorist attacks against Israelis.
The Treasury Department this week released its 2024 risk assessment for the non-fungible token industry, outlining how NFTs and their platforms can be used to evade sanctions, fund terrorism, finance weapons proliferation and more.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two companies in the Central African Republic linked to the Wagner Group, the designated private Russian military organization. The sanctions target Mining Industries SARLU and Logistique Economique Etrangere SARLU for “enabling Wagner Group security operations and Wagner Group-linked illicit mining endeavors” in the CAR, OFAC said.
Congress, federal agencies and state bar associations should work together on new regulations to ensure U.S. lawyers aren't enabling Russia-related sanctions evasion, Stanford Law School lecturer Erik Jensen and a host of law students recommended in a recent report.
China will place export controls starting June 1 on various military and dual-use equipment, software and technology, including items used in the aerospace and shipbuilding industries, along with “ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers,” the country’s commerce Ministry said May 30, according to an unofficial translation.
EU foreign ministers and officials this week called on the bloc to better control exports of dual-use technologies, adding that they want European nations to coordinate more closely on new restrictions and hold regular meetings to discuss “key export control policy issues.” They also want the bloc to work on a new law that would allow member states to formally adopt controls agreed to at the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they’re blocked by Russia.