Over 100 Chinese Firms Flagged as Security Risks — But Washington Won't Pull the Trigger

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Approved, But Never Published

More than 100 Chinese companies have been cleared for addition to the U.S. Commerce Department's so-called Entity List — a trade blacklist that cuts off access to American goods, software, and technology — yet none of them have been officially added. This is according to sources familiar with the matter, as first reported by Reuters.

The Entity List is one of Washington's sharpest tools to prevent sensitive American technology from reaching foreign adversaries. Companies placed on it cannot receive U.S. exports without a special license, which is almost always denied.

The last time any new companies were added to the list was October 2024. That makes the current gap — now stretching beyond seven months — the longest pause in additions in over a decade, according to analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

DeepSeek and CXMT: High-Profile Names on Hold

Among the companies approved but not yet listed are two of China's most strategically significant tech firms.

DeepSeek, the AI startup that rattled global technology markets in January 2025 with a surprisingly powerful and cheap AI model, has been linked to support for China's military and intelligence services. A senior U.S. State Department official previously stated that DeepSeek attempted to use shell companies in Southeast Asia to illegally acquire advanced American chips — a direct violation of U.S. export controls.

The threat posed by DeepSeek goes beyond chips. Earlier this year, Anthropic — the company behind the Claude AI — identified a coordinated effort by DeepSeek and two other Chinese AI labs to extract capabilities from its platform without authorization. OpenAI similarly warned U.S. lawmakers that its own systems had been targeted.

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's leading memory chipmaker, was already designated as a Chinese military company by the U.S. Defense Department under the Biden administration. Commerce Department officials had reportedly considered Entity List placement for CXMT more than a year ago. That move has still not materialized.

A Deliberate Slowdown

The stall is not accidental. Sources point to Jeffrey Kessler, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, as a key figure behind the reluctance to add new listings. Since late 2025, Kessler has reportedly sought to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing at a time when the Trump administration is pursuing broader trade negotiations with China.

That diplomatic calculus concerns national security experts. Kevin Kurland, a former Commerce Department official, put it bluntly: the fact that no companies have been added since October is evidence that trade policy is overriding what should be a national security decision.

Philip Luck of CSIS used a more colorful analogy — comparing the Entity List to the arcade game whack-a-mole: you have to keep hitting the targets, or they keep coming back.

Russian Drones, Nvidia Chips, and Robot Dogs

The scope of what is being held back is striking. According to sources, the backlog of approved-but-unlisted companies includes:

• Multiple Chinese firms that supplied components for Russian drones recovered on Polish soil last September — a direct link to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
• Dozens of companies identified for selling restricted Nvidia chips to Chinese universities in violation of existing export controls.
• Drone and robot dog manufacturers supplying China's military.

Industry experts warn that smaller, lesser-known suppliers in this group are particularly dangerous to leave off the list, since American companies doing business with them may have no idea they are dealing with entities tied to adversarial military programs.

A Broken Tool — And a Wider Problem

The Entity List freeze is part of a broader pattern of inaction at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the current administration. Notably, a Biden-era regulation governing global access to U.S.-made AI chips was slated for replacement early in 2025. More than a year later, no replacement rule has been published — and the old rule is not being enforced either.

That enforcement gap may have already allowed American AI chips to reach Chinese companies through indirect channels, analysts say.

China's foreign ministry, for its part, rejected the entire framework. Spokesperson Lin Jian accused Washington of "politicizing" and "weaponizing" trade and technology policy, calling on the U.S. to stop using tools like the Entity List to suppress Chinese enterprises.

What Comes Next

The situation puts the Trump administration in a difficult position. On one hand, it has consistently positioned itself as tough on China — particularly on technology and national security. On the other hand, the ongoing blacklist freeze tells a different story: that diplomatic and economic considerations are, at least for now, winning out over security concerns.

Whether the administration will resume regular Entity List updates — or continue to hold off in the name of preserving trade talks — remains to be seen. But with over 100 companies waiting in the queue, the window for adversaries to exploit the delay grows wider every day.

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Sources

1. Reuters – Exclusive: US holds off blacklisting China's DeepSeek, more than 100 firms deemed security risks (June 16, 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-holds-off-blacklisting-chinas-deepseek-more-than-100-firms-deemed-security-2026-06-17/
2. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) – Trade and Technology Policy Analysis: https://www.csis.org/programs/trade-technologies-and-development
3. U.S. Department of Commerce – Bureau of Industry and Security, Entity List: https://www.bis.gov/export-administration-regulations/entity-list
4. U.S. Department of Defense – Chinese Military Company Designations: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/

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