US Needs Stronger Export Controls to Prevent Tech Shipments to Xinjiang, Lawmaker Says

Following reports that China is continuing to buy U.S.-made DNA equipment despite U.S. export restrictions, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the Bureau of Industry and Security needs to strengthen its controls.

“We have repeatedly seen the Bureau of Industry and Security’s relaxed approach to export controls end up allowing our adversaries to gain access to critical U.S. technology,” McCaul said in a June 15 statement. He said President Joe Biden should “implement real solutions to this growing threat that are not based on the overly permissive licensing regime currently being used.”

He also said relying solely on BIS’s Entity List is “ineffective” because China can “influence any entity under its authority” to divert their technology. “The time for studying this problem is over,” McCaul said, adding that the “implementation of an emerging and foundational technology list would be a welcome first step.”

A BIS spokesperson said the agency "aggressively enforces"the Export Administration Regulations. Although lawmakers and others have criticized BIS for moving too slowly on its emerging and foundational technology effort (see 2106020024), the agency has stressed that the process will not feature a complete, initial list of controls but will instead be a continuous effort.

McCaul was reacting to a June 11 New York Times report that said police in China’s Xinjiang region are continuing to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of American DNA equipment -- including DNA sequencers and test kits -- despite U.S. export controls and Entity List restrictions. Chinese government procurement documents show that goods made by U.S. companies Thermo Fisher and Promega have continued to ship to Xinjiang, the report said, although it is unclear how Chinese firms are acquiring those items. Thermo Fisher told The New York Times it has controls in place designed to prevent exports to Xinjiang authorities. Promega didn’t comment.

"All sources of information are leveraged to identify, investigate and prosecute violations," the BIS spokesperson said. "This includes publicly-available information, such as the identified NYTimes article.”