US blacklists 5 Chinese groups working in supercomputing

The United States is blacklisting five Chinese organisations involved in supercomputing with military-related applications, citing national security as justification for denying its Asian geopolitical rival access to critical US technology.

The move Friday by the US Commerce Department could complicate talks next week between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, aimed at de-escalating a trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies.

The five blacklisted organisations placed on the so-called Entity List includes supercomputer maker Sugon, which is heavily dependent on US suppliers including chipmakers Intel, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

The other four are the Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology and three Sugon affiliates.

The Commerce Department called their activities "contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States."
An AMD spokesperson said the company was reviewing the order "to determine next steps related to our joint ventures."
"However, the Chinese may see this as ill-timed bullying. They cannot be seen as making concessions to the United States, so this may have the effect of hurting any chances for trade agreement."