Reuters: US Pauses Blacklisting of DeepSeek and Others to Avoid Angering Beijing

(Taipei, Washington, 16th - International News) Reuters, citing two informed sources, reported that the US has not added over 100 Chinese companies deemed to pose national security risks—including AI startup DeepSeek and memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT)—to its trade blacklist. This move comes as the Trump administration seeks to avoid worsening relations with Beijing.

According to the report, an interagency committee last year approved adding DeepSeek and CXMT to the US Department of Commerce's 'Entity List.' This marks the first public revelation of the pending list, with Reuters exclusively disclosing the extensive number of companies involved.

A senior US State Department official told Reuters last year that DeepSeek, which has swept through the tech industry with low-cost AI models, had assisted China's military and intelligence agencies and attempted to illegally obtain advanced US chips through shell companies in Southeast Asia.

This year, US AI company Anthropic revealed that DeepSeek and two other Chinese AI labs had attempted to extract model capabilities from its Claude AI platform to enhance their own models. OpenAI also warned US lawmakers that DeepSeek had similarly tried to attack its AI models.

As for CXMT, China's leading memory chip manufacturer, it was designated a Chinese military company by the US Department of Defense during the previous Biden administration. According to Reuters and other media, the US Department of Commerce had been considering adding CXMT to the Entity List for over a year.

Reuters was unable to obtain responses from DeepSeek and CXMT. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the US Department of Commerce, which oversees the Entity List, did not directly address why the list update has not been announced since last year, nor did it comment on DeepSeek and CXMT specifically.

According to the first source and other informed individuals, since late 2025, US Commerce Department officials including Under Secretary for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler have favored not blacklisting Chinese firms to avoid deteriorating US-China relations.

Inclusion on the Entity List is decided by an interagency committee comprising representatives from Commerce, Defense, Energy, State, and in some cases, the Treasury Department. However, sources say the committee has already screened and approved several companies; the Commerce Department has simply not made the announcement.

Sources indicate that the pending blacklist includes at least 75 Chinese companies involved in advanced semiconductors, semiconductor equipment, and AI model development. Additionally, several Chinese firms supplying military drones and robot dogs to Russia, or reselling controlled Nvidia chips to Chinese universities, have also been included but have yet to be officially announced. (Translation: Tsai Chia-min) 1150617