The Commerce Department is targeting China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 research institutes that focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military.
The move will prevent American companies from selling components to entities without a license.
The pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement that the PRC People's Republic of China is choosing to use these technologies to control its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups. A senior administration official said that the Treasury Department is going to issue sanctions against several Chinese entities because they are not allowed to allow U.S. commodities, technologies and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted towards uses contrary to U.S. national security.
The Commerce Department's official said that Beijing has set up a high tech surveillance system across Xinjiang that uses biometric facial recognition and has collected DNA samples from all residents, ages 12 to 65, in Xinjiang, as part of a systematic effort to suppress Uyghurs.
The White House announced last week that it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing China's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang. U.S. athletes will continue to compete, but Biden won't send the usual contingent of dignitaries.
The administration said this week that it supported bipartisan legislation that bans imports from Xinjiang to the US from Xinjiang unless companies can demonstrate that the goods were not produced by forced labor.
China has denied any abuses and said the steps it has taken are necessary to fight terrorism and a separatist movement.