Washington to add China's SMIC and CNOOC to blacklist

The Trump administration is poised to add Chinese chipmaker SMIC and oil and gas producer CNOOC its blacklist.

The blacklist, which includes those firms that Washington deems Chinese military companies, prevents US firms from doing business with them without first obtaining US government approval. There are currently 35 companies on the list

According to Reuters, already earlier this month the US Department of Defense was planning to designate four more Chinese companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military. SMIC and CNOOC were among these four names.

SMIC told the newswire it continued “to engage constructively and openly with the U.S. government” and that its products and services were solely for civilian and commercial use.

“The Company has no relationship with the Chinese military and does not manufacture for any military end-users or end-uses.”

In response to a question about Washington’s planned move, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said that Beijing hoped the United States would not erect barriers and obstacles to cooperation and discriminate against Chinese companies.

Monday's news followed reports during the previous week that Trump was close to declaring that 89 Chinese aerospace and other companies have military ties, thus also restricting them from buying certain US goods and tech.