(Minghui.org) The U.S. Department of Commerce is adding 77 Chinese entities to its “Entity List,” in an effort to impose new restrictions on activities that undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, according to a statement on December 18, 2020.

“These include entities in China that enable human rights abuses, entities that supported the militarization and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, entities that acquired U.S.-origin items in support of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) programs, and entities and persons that engaged in the theft of U.S. trade secrets,” said the Department of Commerce statement.

Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, said in a separate statement, “The Chinese Communist Party’s malign activity at home and abroad harms U.S. interests and undermines the sovereignty of our allies and partners. The United States will use all countermeasures available, including actions to prevent the People’s Republic of China (PRC) companies and institutions from exploiting U.S. goods and technologies for malign purposes. Today’s actions mark yet another sign of our resolve.”

Four such entities have been found to enable the Chinese Communist Party in its human rights abuses by providing DNA-testing materials and high-technology surveillance equipment to the government.

“We urge the Chinese Communist Party to respect the human rights of the people of China, including Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong members, Uyghur Muslims, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” Pompeo said.

Another sanctioned nineteen entities engaged in “systematically coordinating and committing more than a dozen instances of theft of trade secrets from U.S. corporations to advance the PRC defense industrial complex,” according to Pompeo’s statement.

Other malign activities by the nineteen entities included “undermining U.S. efforts to counter illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials” and “using U.S. exports to support the PLA (People Liberation Army) and PRC (People’s Republic of China) defense industrial base, whose ultimate goal is to surpass the capabilities of other countries they view as competitors, particularly the United States.”

For the Chinese Communist Party’s “coercive campaign in the South China Sea,” 25 shipbuilding research institutes affiliated with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation were added to the Entity List, as well as six other entities that “provide research, development, and manufacturing support for the People’s Liberation Army Navy or attempted to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of PLA programs.”

Five more PRC state-owned enterprises, “including the China Communications Construction Company, for their role in the coercion of South China Sea claimant states,” were also added to the sanction list by the Department of Commerce.

“We will not allow advanced U.S. technology to help build the military of an increasingly belligerent adversary,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.