November 29, 2022
New US Export Controls Need Allied Support
While national security concerns triggered the October 7 U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) export control rule, human rights were not an afterthought.
The new U.S. rule targets exports of advanced node chips and supercomputers to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as U.S. persons and equipment that support Chinese development and production. This goes beyond previous measures that restricted commercial chips to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and added a number of its affiliates to the U.S. entity list, in part due to its connection to PRC surveillance efforts.
Japan and the Netherlands must enact similar advanced chip controls to ensure they do not enable the very practices they denounce.
Analysts have focused on how the new controls will interrupt Chinese defense technology development, including conventional weapons, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), hypersonic weapons, and cognitive electronic warfare capabilities. Less discussed is how they will curb China’s ongoing human rights violations by cutting off key inputs necessary to maintain its surveillance state.
In addition to hard defense technologies, advanced chips power the artificial intelligence (AI) systems and supercomputers that allow China to process massive amounts of personal data from a range of inputs – including phone trackers, biometric markers, and e-commerce and travel records – to monitor and chart minority or dissident targets across the country.
Read the full article from The Diplomat.
More from CNAS
-
Technology & National Security
Countering the Digital Silk RoadExecutive Summary The year 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the Digital Silk Road (DSR), China’s effort to strengthen its global ties and influence through technology. In th...
By Vivek Chilukuri & Ruby Scanlon
-
Technology & National Security
Microsoft Announcement Highlights Complicated Relationship Between Big Tech and WarMicrosoft restricted the Israeli military's access to some of its technology after it found that Israel's Defense Ministry was using its services to carry out mass surveillanc...
By Paul Scharre
-
Technology & National Security
Quantum Sensing at Scale: Navigating Commercialization RoadblocksQuantum sensing is racing forward in the lab—but turning prototypes into products still means wrestling with supply chains, certification, and unit economics. In “Quantum Sens...
By Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante
-
Technology & National Security
Constanza Bustamante, Research Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Joins the Superposition Guy’s PodcastConstanza Bustamante, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is interviewed by Yuval Boger to discuss quantum policy at the nexus of national and economic s...
By Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante