The newly sworn-in U.S. Commerce secretary defended the “entity list,” which prohibits U.S. corporations from doing enterprise with sure overseas companies together with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and vowed to use the record “to its full effect.”
The powerful stance outlined by Gina Raimondo sends a robust sign that the Biden Administration has but to ease pressure on China. The Senate voted 84-15 Tuesday to verify the previous Rhode Island governor’s appointment to President Joe Biden’s cupboard.
In an interview with MSNBC Thursday after she was sworn in as commerce secretary Wednesday night time, Raimondo additionally pledged that the Biden administration will maintain China to account for anti-competitive habits and “horrific” human-rights abuses and can use all instruments at its disposal to counter the “threat” that Beijing’s habits poses.
“The entity list is a powerful tool,” she mentioned. “Chinese telecommunications companies are a threat to American economic and national security. We’re going to use [the list] to its full effect.”
The entity record at the moment comprises greater than 300 Chinese enterprises, together with giant semiconductor and drone producers and corporations engaged in alleged human rights violations in opposition to ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang area.
When requested throughout her Senate affirmation listening to Jan. 26 whether or not Huawei and different Chinese corporations ought to stay on the restricted commerce record, Raimondo didn’t particularly say sure or no. That prompted a number of House Republicans to ask their Senate counterparts to delay her affirmation.
Republican Representative Mark Green of Tennessee joined House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul of Texas in calling on the Senate to maintain Raimondo’s affirmation till the Biden Administration provides a transparent and direct reply on whether or not it deliberate to keep Huawei on the entity record.
Since then, Raimondo’s stance has toughened. In a written response to questions from Senate Republicans, she mentioned she has no cause to consider that entities on the record shouldn’t be there.
“If confirmed, I look forward to a briefing on these entities and others of concern,” she mentioned.
In the Thursday interview, Raimondo repeated her remarks from the Senate listening to that she would take an interagency and whole-of-government strategy to holding a tricky line with China, and she or he criticized China’s commerce and human rights practices.
“China’s behavior is anti-competitive, coercive,” Raimondo mentioned. “Their human rights abuses are horrific, and they need to be held to account for that” in addition to for dumping “excessive amounts of cheap steel and aluminum into America,” she mentioned.
She additionally indicated the Commerce Department has a number of instruments. The entity record and tariffs are each defensive instruments, she mentioned, and the U.S. wants to “play offense” by investing in analysis and growth, manufacturing semiconductors domestically and having entry to the best-trained workforce on the planet.
In a speech Wednesday laying out the Biden administration’s overseas coverage, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken delivered a good stronger stance on the “China threat.” Blinken mentioned China is the one nation with the financial, diplomatic, navy and technological energy to “challenge” the United States.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).
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