Tech war: China silent over Pentagon blacklist as tech firms brace for rising tensions
- None of the 13 Chinese firms newly blacklisted by the US defence department, including DJI, has spoken out, while state media has remained largely silent
- Analysts say the lack of response shows that Washington’s move did not catch Beijing or Chinese companies by surprise
Wednesday’s move paves the way for the US commerce department to impose trade restrictions against those companies, including investment bans.
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China’s biggest drone maker DJI blacklisted by US defence department
The implications of such a move could be huge, but none of the named Chinese firms has made any official statement as of Friday. Reactions from state media remain largely muted as well.
While part of the reason could be that China was in the middle of a week-long National Day holiday, which ended on Friday, analysts said the lack of response shows that the US move did not catch the Chinese by surprise.
Chinese companies have “already been mentally prepared” for US sanctions and have started to cut reliance on US technologies and products, according to Lu Chuanying, director at the Research Centre of Global Cyberspace Governance of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.
“The only thing [sanctions] does is to prompt more companies to completely give up cooperating with the US, and to build a new ecosystem that does not involve the US,” he said.
It should be noted that inclusion on the Pentagon’s blacklist “does not equate to a sanction or penalty”, according to Paul Haswell, partner and technology lawyer at Hong Kong-based law firm Seyfarth Shaw.
