China's customs agency recently updated its voluntary disclosure policies for reporting certain customs violations, according to an unofficial translation.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued new FAQs last week that it said help clarify certain requirements related to the filing of suspicious activity reports with FinCEN. The FAQs touch on requirements relating to the circumstances under which financial institutions must file the reports, ongoing reviews of customer accounts, and more.

A bipartisan group of 25 senators told a Taiwan official Oct. 7 that they will continue to support U.S. arms sales to his country to ensure it “has the asymmetric capabilities it requires to deter Chinese aggression.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., announced Oct. 9 that he's introducing a resolution that calls for applying “all applicable sanctions authorities against officials of the Chinese Communist Party, including sanctions authorized by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.” The resolution accuses Chinese President Xi Jinping of "deceit, undermining prospects for peace and security, and orchestrating crimes against humanity." It lists dozens of examples of China's objectionable behavior, including supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, threatening to take over Taiwan, conducting “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims and violating its World Trade Organization obligations.

Three Senate Democrats criticized the Trump administration late Oct. 9 for removing sanctions on former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes (see 2510060056).

The Senate approved by voice vote late on Oct. 9 an amendment to the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would restrict U.S. outbound investment in China.

The Commerce Department is investigating Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed for potentially helping Chinese companies evade U.S. export controls on sensitive Nvidia chips, The New York Times reported last week. Megaspeed is reportedly poised to buy $2 billion of Nvidia AI technology over the next year, and the Commerce probe is looking into whether it has been indirectly funneling some of those chips to China, including to data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia that appear to be remotely serving Chinese customers. "U.S. officials have also been scrutinizing whether Megaspeed diverted some of those chips on to China, in violation of U.S. law," the report said.

President Donald Trump reacted angrily to China's plan to expand export restrictions, including when rare earths are in products made abroad (see 2510090021. In a social media post that seemed to trigger a 2.7% drop in the S&P 500, he wrote, "Dependent on what China says about the hostile 'order' that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two."

The U.S. should impose new chip-related export controls on China in response to Beijing’s new rules last week that will restrict overseas exports if they contain certain levels of Chinese-origin material (see 2510090021), a former senior U.S. national security official said.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation last week updated its open general license for certain trade among the AUKUS nations of Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. The update includes new text on the "Authorised User Community and clarification on F680 requirements," the U.K. said. "It also makes updates to the items not permitted by the licence, including additional nerve agents, prototypes for naval nuclear propulsion plant, test and maintenance equipment and test models for naval nuclear propulsion plant and prototypes."