Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 8 entities to the Entity List for activities contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy under the destinations of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) (2), Burma (2), and Russia (4). These Entity List additions are related to enabling human rights violations.  

“Human rights abuses are contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan F. Estevez. “By adding these parties to the Entity List with the presumption of denial license review policy, we aim to ensure that U.S. technology is not used to enable human rights violations and abuses.”

“BIS is deeply committed to protecting human rights and vulnerable populations throughout the world,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea D. Rozman Kendler. “Today’s action will prevent bad actors from misusing items subject to our controls for malign purposes.”

Of the two PRC entities added, one was added because it enables human rights violations, including high-technology surveillance targeted at the general population of the people of China, Uyghurs, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups. The other entity was added due to enabling the PRC’s public security establishment to carry out human rights violations.

Four entities, two under the destination of Burma and two under the destination of Russia, were added to the Entity List for supplying the Burmese military with parts and components that have enabled the military to carry out human rights violations, including brutal aerial attacks against the civilian population.

The remaining two Russian entities were added for supplying facial recognition technology to the Russian government to target peaceful protesters, an integral component of Russia’s mass surveillance apparatus.

Additional Background

These BIS actions were taken under the authority of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and its implementing regulations, the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

The Entity List (supplement no. 4 to part 744 of the EAR) identifies entities and addresses for which there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that the entities—including businesses, research institutions, government and private organizations, individuals, and other types of legal persons—or parties that are operating at an address that presents a high diversion risk, have been involved, are involved, or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Parties on the Entity List are subject to individual licensing requirements and policies supplemental to those found elsewhere in the EAR.

The interagency End-User Review Committee (ERC), comprised of the Departments of Commerce (Chair), Defense, State, Energy, and where appropriate, the Treasury, makes decisions regarding additions to, removals from, or modifications to the Entity List. The ERC makes all decisions to add an entity to the Entity List by majority vote and makes all decisions to remove or modify an entity by unanimous vote.

The text of the rule, which includes the list of entities, is available on the Federal Register’s website [here].

Additional information on the Entity List is available on BIS’s website at: https://www.bis.gov/entity-list.

For more information, visit www.bis.gov.

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