The U.S. war on Chinese technology has entered a new phase, with universities in the country added to Washington’s blacklist of tech entities.
The Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) at Shenzhen University City has had its access to critical engineering software cut off, and a joint education plan with University of Arizona is now in limbo, reports Nikkei.
In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce added HIT and Harbin Engineering University to the “Entity List” as institutions that posed a risk of procuring items for military end-use in China (Source: U.S. Department of Commerce). The U.S. government sees any transaction between U.S. companies and entities on the list as a red flag.
Founded in 1920, HIT is a key Chinese university with notable strength in space science, robotics and engineering.
Chinese students have also been barred from using common computer coding language MATLAB for technical computing, with their college accounts (Source: TMT Post).
“Many people feel disappointed that politics has begun to impact academics and research. They wonder how long the U.S. government regulations will last and whether the same will happen to other software at more Chinese institutions”, says a report.
Last week “China’s MIT” celebrated its 100th founding anniversary.
