US to blacklist Chinese companies including SMIC - report

The US is ready to add dozens of Chinese companies including chipmaker SMIC to a trade blacklist on Friday, according to a report.

About 80 companies and affiliated will be added to the US's so-called entity list, almost all of them Chinese, as Donald Trump seeks to entrench his hardline on China with a month to go until the end of his presidency, Reuters reported.

The Commerce Department is expected to name Chinese companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military including some involved in human rights violations and helping to build and militarise artificial island in the South China Sea, Reuters said.

Trump's administration has used the entity list to put pressure on Chinese industries including Huawei and Hikvision. SMIC has been in Washington's sights already - the Commerce Department said in September there was an unacceptable risk that equipment supplied to it could be used for military purpose.

Trade tensions between the US and China have simmered over the past year as Washington has criticised Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, a Draconian national security law in Hong Kong and operations in the South China Sea.