The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to hold its annual update conference March 18-20 in Washington, according to the agency’s website. Registration for the conference hasn’t yet opened.
A bipartisan group of four lawmakers reintroduced a bill Jan. 14 that would rank countries on their efforts to fight corruption, and would direct the State Department to evaluate whether the worst offenders should be subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The U.K. on Jan. 17 amended the sanctions listing for Domingo Antonio Hernandez Larez, the commander in chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, under its Venezuelan sanctions regime. The updated listing removed one of his job titles.
The U.S. last week sanctioned a group of people and entities under a recently revised executive order that authorizes sanctions against those threatening the sovereignty of the Western Balkans (see 2501080025). The designations target five people and one entity supporting the corruption of Milorad Dodik, the sanctioned president of the Serb Republic, and eight others who organized a “Republika Srpska Day” last year in contravention of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the 1995 accords that put an end to the yearslong Bosnian War.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned Yin Kecheng, a Shanghai-based hacker, and Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., LTD., a China-based cybersecurity company, for their roles in cyber attacks against the U.S. OFAC said Yin was involved in the recent reported hacking of the Treasury Department by the Chinese government (see 2501020009) and Juxinhe Network has ties to the Salt Typhoon cyber group, which recently hacked the networks of multiple major U.S. telecommunications and internet service providers.
The U.S. last week sanctioned the Yemen Kuwait Bank for Trade and Investment, a Yemeni bank that it said has given financial support to the Yemen-based Houthis. The Treasury Department said the Houthis, listed by the U.S. as a specially designated global terrorist last year (see 2401170025), use the bank to launder money, transfer funds, and create and finance front companies.
Jake Sullivan, in one of his final public appearances as national security adviser under President Joe Biden, urged the incoming Trump administration to continue imposing technology restrictions against China and to do so in coordination with U.S. allies.
California-based machine tool manufacturer Haas Automation will pay more than $2.5 million to the U.S. government after being accused of illegally shipping parts and other items to sanctioned and Entity Listed companies in China and Russia.
China “firmly opposes” the Netherlands’ plan to expand export controls over certain semiconductor equipment (see 2501150057), which “threatens the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said this week at a regular press conference, according to an unofficial translation. The spokesperson said Beijing has “expressed its deep concern” to the Netherlands and said it hopes the country will “respect market principles,” the “spirit of contract” and the “legitimate rights and interests of companies from all countries, including Chinese and Dutch companies.”
China pushed back this week against the Biden administration’s latest round of semiconductor-related export controls (see 2501130026 and 2501150040) and Entity Listings (see 2501150016), saying they risk further straining trade ties between the two countries. Beijing also added four more U.S. defense companies to its so-called unreliable entity list and said it’s reviewing whether U.S. subsidies for the American chip industry are unfairly propping up U.S. exports of legacy semiconductors.