US Effort to Restrict Emerging Tech Sales Is Abuse of Export Controls, China Says

China's Foreign Ministry criticized the Commerce Department’s efforts to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1912160032), saying the U.S. is “abusing export control measures” and “impeding” cooperation between the two countries. A ministry spokesperson said the U.S. is “over-generalizing” the concept of national security as justification for the export controls, which are aimed at preventing countries, including China, from acquiring access to sensitive U.S. technologies. “Don't think you can ever deter China's growth as well as scientific and technological innovation by limiting exports of high-end technologies to us,” the spokesman said during a Dec. 18 press conference. “You are being too arrogant.”

The spokesman suggested the controls will have little impact on China’s technological innovation, which he said is due to “independent, gritty and hard-working Chinese people with painstaking efforts.” He said China has “full confidence” in its science and technology sectors. “Restriction, disturbance, sabotage and blockade from the U.S. side will not be a major problem for us,” he said. “They are temporary setbacks that will only make us more intelligent and ambitious.”