Biden admin removes 27 Chinese companies from trade restriction list on same day commerce secretary announces Beijing visit

The Biden administration removed 27 Chinese companies from a trade restriction list the same day the United States Commerce Department announced that its secretary would be visiting the communist nation.

Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo will meet with Chinese officials for “constructive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by U.S. businesses, and areas for potential cooperation,” the Associated Press reported.

The same day, the department also announced that it would be removing 33 companies from its "Unverified List," 27 of which were Chinese. Companies on the list are subjected to greater trade restrictions and must provide supplemental documentation to trade certain items.

"Today, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that 33 parties will be removed from the Unverified List, 27 of which are based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with others located in Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates," the press release said.

“The ability to verify the legitimacy and reliability of foreign parties receiving U.S. exports through the timely completion of end-use checks is a core principle of our export control system,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod.

“Our removal of 33 parties demonstrates the concrete benefit companies receive when they or a host government cooperates with BIS to complete a successful end-use check.”

The move obviously pleased Chinese officials, which was confirmed by Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s embassy in the United States.

"We welcome the US decision to remove Chinese entities from the 'unverified list'. It shows that [China and America] can address specific concerns through communication based on mutual respect. China will continue to firmly defend its lawful rights and interests," Liu wrote on Twitter.

Secretary Raimondo was one of several U.S. officials on the receiving end of a hack from a China-based group that gained access to government agency email accounts.

According to Microsoft, the hackers initially breached the email accounts in May 2023, but the attack wasn't discovered by the State Department until a month later. Congressman Don Bacon also had his campaign and personal emails infiltrated.

Chinese hackers even infiltrated American military bases in Guam in what was called one of the largest known cyber-espionage campaigns against the United States, according to the BBC.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!