China vows it will take ‘necessary measures’ after US blacklists firms

China said on Sunday it would take “necessary measures” in response to the Commerce Department’s announcement on Friday that the U.S. would add 19 Chinese companies to an economic blacklist over their alleged roles in human rights abuses and supporting military modernization.

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that the department’s decision to add these companies was a “serious breach of international economic and trade rules” claimed that it was “unreasonable suppression,” according to Reuters.

The ministry said that the country would “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests.”

On Friday, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 19 Chinese firms to its economic blacklist. 

According a news release, 14 of the companies were placed on the blacklist for their alleged role in enabling “Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions of China (XUAR), where the PRC continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.” 

The department added five others for allegedly supporting the country’s “military modernization programs.”

“The Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to taking strong, decisive action to target entities that are enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang or that use U.S. technology to fuel China’s destabilizing military modernization efforts,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

“We will continue to aggressively use export controls to hold governments, companies, and individuals accountable for attempting to access U.S.-origin items for subversive activities in countries like China, Iran, and Russia that threaten U.S. national security interests and are inconsistent with our values,” she added.

Firms listed on the department’s blacklist encounter more scrutiny from the U.S. when they ask permission to get goods from American suppliers, and they usually have to apply for licenses through the department, according to Reuters. 

China has denied allegations of human rights abuses.