China calls Taiwan's tech blacklist 'despicable'

Beijing hit out Wednesday at Taiwan's inclusion of two Chinese tech giants on an exports blacklist, calling it "despicable" and vowing to defend its interests.

China's Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) were among 601 entities from several countries added to a "strategic high-tech commodities entity list" by the Taiwanese government this month.

Taiwan is a global chip powerhouse but companies based there must now obtain permission from the government to ship high-tech products to Huawei, SMIC or any other entity on the list.


Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office, said Taipei was attempting to curry favour with the United States by "repeatedly resorting to sinister and evil tactics".

"These despicable actions are disgraceful," Zhu said when asked about the Taiwanese blacklist.

"We will take effective measures to resolutely maintain the normal order of cross-strait economic and trade exchanges and cooperation, and safeguard the interests and well-being of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," she said in comments published by state broadcaster CCTV.

Taiwan's move comes as Chinese tech companies face increasing export restrictions imposed by the United States.

Washington has expanded efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China over concern that they could be used to advance Beijing's military systems and other tech capabilities.

The United States recently unveiled guidelines warning firms that using Chinese-made high-tech AI semiconductors, specifically Huawei's Ascend chips, would put them at risk of violating US export controls.