By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters), – U.S. commerce secretary Gina Raimondo announced Tuesday that the Biden government is considering adding Chinese businesses to its economic blacklist. The administration investigates China’s efforts to evade U.S. sanction.

Access to U.S. Exports is restricted by the Commerce Department’s Entity List.

Raimondo said to reporters that his administration is working with China to get information on “bad actors in China” and to add these companies to the EntityList… This investigation has been ongoing.

Elle added, “I don’t think we will relax sanctions anytime soon.”

China does not seem to be in a rut, she stated. We are seeing new methods to get around our sanctions. Our efforts are very intense and diligent.”

She stated that she is open to working with U.S. ally to harmonize their export restrictions with U.S. trade restrictions.

Trump’s administration used the Entity List aggressively, adding many Chinese businesses to it in 2019, including Huawei. In 2020, it added SMIC chipmaker and DJI Chinese drone manufacturer DJI.

The Biden administration has extended that policy and in November put a dozen Chinese companies on the Entity List over national security and foreign policy concerns, in some cases citing their help in developing the Chinese military’s quantum computing efforts.

Commerce added China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences (China) and 11 of its research institutions to the Entity Liste in December.

Raimondo mentioned a report by Apple Inc (NASDAQ) that Apple Inc was looking at moving production to China. She said that she had heard the same from many other American manufacturing firms, including some who have manufactured in China for decades.

Commerce Department included 33 Chinese entities on its “unverified List” in February. The Commerce Department requires that U.S. Exporters must go through additional processes before shipping products to those entities.

China’s embassy in Washington said last year the United States “uses the catch-all concept of national security and abuses state power to suppress and restrict Chinese enterprises in all possible means.”