The U.S. Commerce Department has said it would add 33 Chinese firms and institutions to an economic blacklist, citing “national security” and “human rights” issues. It will add 24 Chinese governmental and commercial organizations to the Entity List “for engaging in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” The Department also blacklisted seven Chinese companies and two institutions, accusing them of alleged involvement in “human rights violations” against ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The listings include Qihoo360, a Chinese cyber security firm that was delisted from the NASDAQ in 2015; CloudMinds, that operates a cloud-based service to run robots; the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research; the Harbin Engineering University; and the Harbin institute of Technology. Being placed on the Entity List will result in restrictions on U.S. goods the companies will be allowed to purchase and on some items made abroad with U.S. content or technology. The companies can still apply for a license on a case by case basis.

Qihoo360, the largest cyber security firm in China, said it firmly opposes the irresponsible accusation, which lacks any credible evidence, and it opposes the U.S. Commerce Department’s move to politicize commercial activities and technological R&D. According to Qihoo360, the 360 Cyber Security Brain, an advanced system that does intelligent upgrades of cyber security defenses developed by the company, has helped Apple, Google, and Microsoft discover thousands of security vulnerabilities and indirectly protected global netizens. The system has been highly praised by these companies. The 360 Cyber Security Brain has also helped U.S. law enforcement agencies to crack down on global cyberattacks. The company said the U.S. itself was involved in hacking.

CloudWalk Technology, a Guangzhou-based developer of facial recognition software for the financial, public security and aviation sectors, said the company has made contingency plans following the latest U.S. move. “CloudWalk conducts business activities by strictly abiding to the laws and regulations of relevant countries and regions,” the company said.

The actions to expand the Entity List follow the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies for what it says are national security reasons. Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation said “the U.S. is also plotting to round up small and medium-sized companies that have potential to become bigger and stronger and knock them off collectively”. Bai said the U.S. is escalating a trade fight because it wants to remove China from high-end manufacturing and keep the country locked in low- and mid-end production.

The latest sanctions up the ante in a growing tech war between the world’s two-largest economies, which are jostling for supremacy in a range of new technologies such as 5G mobile networks and AI. The move also comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and access to U.S. capital markets for Chinese companies, the South China Morning Post adds.

Shenzhen-based  Intellifusion expressed “deep shock and regret” at being added to the entity list. The company said that it was actively communicating with all parties, trying its best to ensure it is treated fairly and it has also made relevant plans, according to a post published on its official WeChat account.

Skyeye Laser also expressed regret in an official statement on its WeChat account, saying that the company has always insisted on independent R&D and legal operations.

The Global Times said the Chinese government is ready to target Apple, Qualcomm, Cisco and Boeing in retaliation for U.S. restrictions on Huawei. The countermeasures could include adding the companies to China’s “unreliable entity list”, launching investigations into them, and suspending aircraft purchases from Boeing.

Relations between the U.S. and China are further deteriorating as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulated Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on her second term and U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien compared China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak to the Soviet Union’s cover-up of the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. He added that “with respect to the trade deal, we’ll see if they live up to it, but we’re dealing in a new world now with corona.” China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that relations between the two countries were “on the brink of a new cold war”.