BIS Has Completed Over 130 China End-Use Checks Since UVL Policy Change, Official Says

A 2022 Bureau of Industry and Security policy change has continued to lead to improved Chinese cooperation with BIS end-use checks, an agency official said Jan. 23.

Under the policy, BIS can move companies from the Unverified List to the Entity List if they don't allow BIS to complete an end-use check within 60 days (see 2210070006). Before the change, "the Chinese government had not allowed us to conduct a check in over two years," said Kevin Kurland, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement. “In the year since the policy was announced, we have completed over 130 end-use checks in China and moved all Russian companies on the UVL to the Entity List.”

BIS officials have previously said they have seen better cooperation from China since the policy change (see 2212060059 and 2306010044).

Kurland made his comments in written testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight, which postponed a hearing on improving export controls enforcement because its top Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, was “under the weather,” a subcommittee spokesperson said. A new hearing date has not been announced.

Kurland also revealed that BIS is organizing a Disruptive Technology Protection Network with Japan and South Korea to enable “joint investigative approaches and complementary enforcement outcomes.” The network will be based on the Disruptive Technology Strike Force that BIS launched with DOJ in February to keep critical technologies out of the hands of adversary countries (see 2302160019).

James Mancuso, assistant director of Homeland Security Investigations, said in written testimony that Iranian efforts to procure U.S. technology led to a 60% increase in Iranian-tied HSI case initiations from FY 2022 to FY 2023. He also said the Israel-Hamas war led HSI to form a working group of export enforcement agencies to address Hamas and Hezbollah procurement networks trying to obtain U.S.-controlled commodities.

BIS wrote in its recent year-end review that Commerce’s export enforcement actions in 2023 resulted in the “highest number ever” of convictions, temporary denial orders, and post-conviction denial orders (see 2401030074). It also said it worked with foreign governments to complete over 1,500 end-use checks, “our most ever in a single year."