Biden Admin Reinstates 27 Blacklisted Chinese Entities ahead of State Visit

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced that it would remove 27 previously “unverified” Chinese entities from an economic blacklist ahead of an official state visit to China by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Experts are noting that it is unclear what political victory the U.S. got in return for rewarding China with the blacklist removals, especially as the Chinese economy teeters on the edge of a downturn.

The 27 unverified Chinese entities were previously restricted from buying American technology due to the DOC’s inability to confirm who the end users for their products were. The companies were removed from the blacklist after the Biden administration claimed that “it was able to verify that [the entities] were not diverting technologies for military use.” Some of the entities include lithium battery material maker Guangdong Guanghua Sci-Tech Co. and sensor maker NanJing GOVA Technology Co.

Gordon Chang, distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Great U.S.-China Tech War,” observed on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch” that overtures of finding common ground in the U.S.-China-U.S. relationship appear to be one-sided.

“There have been four straight visits of senior Biden administration officials to Beijing without a return official visit by a Chinese official,” he pointed out. “[I]t started in June with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It continued with that infamous visit of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. John Kerry, the climate czar, was next. And now it’s been Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary. And the problem here is that we are giving the Chinese the impression that we ourselves believe that we are supplicants to China because this is unprecedented in the state visits to Beijing without a return visit.”

As to the question of what the Biden administration is trying to accomplish with the series of state visits, Chang expressed bewilderment.

“I actually don’t know, because what these visits do is it makes it harder for the administration to accomplish its own goals, because they’re making the Chinese more arrogant,” he asserted. “… Secretary Blinken talks a lot to Henry Kissinger. … Kissinger has been warning about war. In June, he said that war between China and the United States over Taiwan is ‘probable.’ And so I guess the Biden team is trying to desperately prevent a war. But what they’re doing is actually accelerating it by making the Chinese even more emboldened.”

Chang went on to warn that Biden’s strategy of opening up more economic opportunities for China at the expense of American businesses could backfire spectacularly. Reports continue to confirm that China is likely on the precipice of a massive economic downturn due to a real estate crisis that is “rippling through the economy.” According to The New York Times, Chinese real estate developers are currently $390 billion underwater, with the actual number likely much higher.

“The problem … is that China is increasingly dangerous for American business and Americans and foreigners in general,” Chang underscored. “And as a matter of protecting Americans, [Commerce Secretary Raimondo] should be urging American businesses to get out of China as fast as possible. We have seen this before in Chinese history where they attack foreigners. And that’s exactly what’s going on right now.”

Chang further emphasized that Raimondo’s visit is an economic boon for China with little benefit for the U.S. in return. “If you’re going to make a concession, you should get a concession. … [R]ight now, China needs us much more than we need China, because the American economy is chugging along. I mean, there are problems, of course, but we’re chugging along and China is falling apart, and so they need foreign business. They need American business. And so we’ve given them a big favor and gotten nothing in return.”

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to double down on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) verified policies of attempting to erase the ethnic Uyghur population in the Xinjiang province during a visit to the region on August 26. As reported by Breitbart, “Xi spent most of his time there with high-ranking local communists indoors, not interacting with the public.” He later made remarks reported by state media, declaring in part, “We must enhance our awareness of adversities … and consolidate our hard-won social stability. In the process of Chinese-style modernisation, [sic] we will better build a beautiful Xinjiang that is united and harmonious, wealthy, and prosperous.”

Evidence points to Xi personally ordering the dismantling of Uyghur society in the region. In obtained CCP documents, Xi demanded that government officials “break the lineages, break the roots, break the connections, break the origins” of ethnic Uyghurs. The subsequent government policies have resulted in forcing three million Uyghurs into labor camps, in which documented indoctrination, sexual assault, forced labor, forced medical testing, and live organ harvesting are occurring. The region has also experienced the forced separation of children from their families, forced sterilization of women, and the bulldozing of cemeteries and other cultural sites.