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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, on a bipartisan basis, has released the following statement regarding basic transparency of aggregated licensing outcomes for companies based in China who are on the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List. The licensing data covers a three-month time period – from January 3 through March 31, 2022. The licenses authorize sales of often sensitive and controlled technology to blacklisted companies.
“We are currently in the middle of a struggle for the global balance of power – and the primary battleground is technology leadership. So, it is absolutely astounding BIS approved more than $23 billion worth of licenses to sell U.S. technology to blacklisted companies based in China. In total, only eight percent of licenses to these entity-listed companies were denied. It is well within BIS Under Secretary Estevez’s authority to update these licensing policies and start denying licenses.
“I want to thank Ranking Member Meeks for joining me in supporting the release of this information. Our committee’s decision reflects our bipartisan support for conducting rigorous oversight over our export control system.”
Chairman McCaul questioned Under Secretary Estevez during today’s hearing about this issue. The exchange can be found here. In October 2021, the House Foreign Affairs released earlier data on licensing outcomes for companies based in China who are on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. That data covered a six-month time period between 2020 and 2021 and included $60 billion in licenses to Huawei and $40 billion in licenses to SMIC.
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