Chinese, Pakistani firms added to US export control list

The Biden administration on Monday added 43 entities to an export control list, including Frontier Services Group Ltd, a security and aviation company previously run by Erik Prince, for training Chinese military pilots and other activities that threaten US national security.

The Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a flight school under scrutiny by authorities in Britain for recruiting British ex-military pilots to train Chinese military fliers, was also added to the US Commerce Department's Entity List.

Companies on the list are restricted from receiving US exports for activities deemed contrary to US interests. The new listings include Frontier Services Group sites in China, Kenya, Laos and the United Arab Emirates; TFASA units in South Africa, China, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom; and AVIC entities in China and South Africa.

The aviation-related companies were listed for providing training to Chinese military pilots using Western and Nato sources, according to a rule posted for the Federal Register. Thirty-one Chinese entities in total were added to the list, some for acquiring US-origin items in support of China's military modernisation, such as hypersonic weapons development.

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Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co Ltd was added for offering cloud-based supercomputing capabilities to support hypersonics research. Nine Chinese and Pakistani companies were added based on their contributions to Pakistan's ballistic missile program and other weapons contributions. And two companies were added for enabling China to carry out human rights abuses, including as part of its repression of the Ugyhur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, western China.

The US also removed Fiber Optic Solutions in Latvia from the Entity List. Fiber Optic Solutions, which produces fiber optic gyroscopes and other equipment, was added in December for its contributions to the Russian military and/or defense industrial base. Erik Prince, a private security executive, was the founder of the security firm Blackwater.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Prince was vice chair of Frontier Services Group from 2014 to 2021.