China's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday condemned negative measures taken by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against China and announced countermeasures in response.
A Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said in a statement that since Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump held a meeting in Busan, the Republic of Korea, last October, the FCC has repeatedly stretched the concept of national security and imposed multiple restrictions on China covering telecom operations, testing laboratories, drones, consumer routers, submarine cables and other fields, disregarding strong opposition from China and robust calls from the industry in both China and the United States.
Recently, the FCC has also imposed import restrictions on advanced robotics equipment and power inverters.
The spokesperson specifically noted that on July 30, Chinese and U.S. economic and trade lead officials held a video call. However, just one day later, the U.S. added over 40 Chinese entities to the so-called "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List." China expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.
The FCC's relevant measures and the DHS's addition of Chinese entities to the so-called list seriously depart from the consensus reached between the two heads of state and severely undermine China's legitimate rights and interests, the spokesperson said.
China has no choice but to take necessary countermeasures in response, including strengthening export controls on drones and their key components and technologies to the U.S., suspending the authorization of U.S.-based certification bodies to conduct follow-up factory inspections for products certified under the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) system, adding U.S. firm Compliance Testing LLC to the countermeasure list, launching a national security investigation into imports of printing and copying office equipment, and placing six U.S. entities on the countermeasure list.
The CCC system is part of China's market access system, with goals including safeguarding national security and preventing market fraud. It is administered by the State Administration for Market Regulation and implemented by third-party certification bodies.
Currently, the CCC catalog contains 106 types of products across 17 product categories, covering key areas of foreign trade and people's livelihoods.
The spokesperson stressed that China's countermeasures are generally restrained, and that China cherishes the hard-won stability in bilateral trade and economic ties.
"We hope the U.S. side will work in the same direction with China," the spokesperson said, adding that China demands the United States immediately revoke the relevant measures, stop its wrongful acts, and return to the proper track of friendly consultation and cooperation to resolve differences, so as to jointly maintain a constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability.
If the U.S. insists on introducing new restrictive measures against China, China will take further countermeasures in response, the spokesperson said.
According to the ministry, Compliance Testing assisted and supported negative measures taken by the FCC against Chinese companies.
The six U.S. entities subject to the countermeasures are Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., Stratum Reservoir, LLC., Altana Technologies, Inc., Responsible Business Alliance, Verite Group, Inc., and Human Rights in China. They assisted and supported the United States' unlawful Xinjiang-related sanctions, the ministry said in another statement.
China condemns US negative restrictive measures, announces countermeasures
