The Department of Commerce blacklisted six Chinese entities on Friday for supporting the country’s spy balloon programs, after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the U.S. earlier this month.
The companies and organizations, which have allegedly supported China’s aerospace programs that develop airships and balloons for intelligence and reconnaissance efforts, are barred from obtaining U.S. items and technologies with their addition to the U.S. Entity List.
“The Commerce Department will not hesitate to continue to use the Entity List and our other regulatory and enforcement tools to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty,” Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said in a press release.
“The Entity List is a powerful tool for identifying and cutting off actors that seek to use their access to global markets to do harm and threaten American national security,” he added.
A Chinese spy balloon spent a week traveling over the U.S. earlier this month, before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday.
Beijing has claimed that the balloon was primarily being used for meteorological research and was blown off course. However, the U.S. government has largely rejected these explanations, accusing the balloon of surveilling strategic sites within the U.S.
Another “high-altitude object” crossed into U.S. airspace over Alaska and was shot down on Friday afternoon, although it remains to be seen whether it was operated by a foreign country, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
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