The Biden administration is adding six Chinese entities to an export blacklist—each of them with connections to Beijing’s suspected surveillance balloon program.
Among them are five companies and a research institute.
The Commerce Department said it blacklisted them for supporting “China’s military modernization efforts,” specifically aerospace programs run by China’s military that involve “airships and balloons.”
The entity list restricts targeted companies from obtaining U.S. tech exports. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made use of the list, largely to block Beijing from advancing its military through American-made technology.
Washington has said it’s confident that the manufacturer of last week’s spy balloon has a “direct relationship” with the Chinese military.