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US slaps sanctions on entities from China, Georgia, Iran, Malaysia and Turkey

16 December 2021 18:36 (UTC +04:00)

The US Department of Commerce updated its entities list on Thursday, adding over three dozen companies, persons, and entities from China, Georgia, Iran, Malaysia, and Turkey, APA reports citing Sputnik.

Among the targeted entities are China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes, based on claims that they have sought to "use biotechnology processes to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include purported brain-control weaponry."

Thirty-four of the targeted entities are China-based.

The restrictions also include the designation of three companies accused of supplying or attempting to supply Iran with US-origin items for Iran's advanced conventional and missile programmes.

"Today, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security took action to address the ongoing threats to US national security and foreign policy presented by the People's Republic of China's efforts to develop and deploy biotechnology and other technologies for military applications and human rights abuses," the department said in a press statement.

"BIS is also taking action against entities operating in the PRC, Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey for diverting or attempting to divert US items to Iran's military programs," the statement added.

"The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the PRC is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo was quoted as saying.

"We cannot allow US commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to US national security," she added.

The Commerce Department did not elaborate on its Chinese "brain-control weaponry" claims, but listed over a dozen other companies to the entities list for their alleged work in "support of China's military modernization."

Comtel Technology Limited, HSJ Electronics and Wavelet Electronics, three other Chinese firms, are implicated in the alleged attempt to supply US-made components to Iran.