Photo: GT

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) said on Thursday that it has added two Chinese companies - Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and aviation firm Skyrizon to two separate blacklists, in what Chinese analysts are calling a "final frenzy" of the outgoing Trump administration's crackdown on Chinese businesses.

In a statement on its website, the US DOC said that it has added CNOOC to its so-called entity list and Skyrizon to its military end-user list, accusing the Chinese companies of threatening US national security - a claim Chinese officials have repeatedly refuted. Addition to the blacklists will likely prevent US companies from supplying and investing in the Chinese companies.

The latest moves by the US commerce department comes just six days before Trump is to be replaced by President-elect Joe Biden and followed a series of similar moves against Chinese firms in recent days ahead of the transition of power.

In another "final frenzy" move, the US government forced the New York Stock Exchange to delist three Chinese telecommunication companies - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - earlier this week, accusing the companies of having ties with the Chinese military.

Commenting on the US delisting of the three Chinese telecom firms, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, harshly criticized the US move as a baseless crackdown pushed by certain US political forces that exposed "an arbitrary and capricious uncertainty" in US rules and mechanisms. 

Some Chinese analysts also said that the latest crackdowns against Chinese companies show that the Trump administration is trying to create hurdles to hamstring the incoming Biden administration's China policy.

Global Times