The US Commerce Department has added China’s largest chipmaker, semiconductor manufacturing international Corporation (smic), to its list. It determined there an’unacceptable risk’ that equipment smic received could be used for military purposes.

The move blocks us computer chip companies from exporting technology to smic without an export license. The Trump administration added phone manufacturer Huawei to the list in 2019.

The Commerce Department wrote in a letter to the computer chip industry on Friday that exporting products to smic would’pose an unacceptable risk of diversion to a military end use in the people’s Republic of China’.

In April, the administration tightened export rules on shipping goods to China. It claims it’s seeking to keep us companies from selling products that could help strengthen the Chinese military.