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SCMP: U.S. State Department proposes adding China’s Ant Group to trade blacklist, insiders say

Fri October, 2020, Age: 3 years

The U.S. State Department has submitted a proposal for the Trump administration to add China’s Ant Group  to the Entities List, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move comes as Ant Group, which is the fintech arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba and overseas the payment app Alipay, is set to IPO in Shanghai and  Hong Kong soon. The entity list, which makes it more difficult for U.S. firms to sell to blacklisted companies, has become the tool of choice for the Trump administration to punish Chinese companies, though its real-world impact is questionable. Other companies which have been similarly targetted recently include ZTE, Huawei, DJI, and SMIC.