(Image credit: Getty / MirageC)

The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China just added several prominent Western companies to its Unreliable Entity List, including the research firm TechInsights. This Canada-based company was one of the institutions that revealed Huawei used TSMC to build the Ascend 910B chip despite American sanctions, resulting in a possible $1-billion fine for the Taiwanese chip maker. According to the announcement by the Ministry of Commerce [machine translated] (via Bloomberg), TechInsights and all the other companies in its list organizations and individuals within China are prohibited “from engaging in transactions, cooperation, and other activities with the aforementioned entities, especially transmitting data or providing sensitive information to these entities.”

TechInsights and all its subsidiaries across the globe are included in the ban. But what’s interesting is that the research firm has been specifically mentioned in the government announcement, and that most of the other companies on the list are defense contractors and aerospace companies like Elbit Systems of America and BAE Systems. There’s also a smattering of anti-drone companies, like Dedrone and Epirus, which developed the Leonidas microwave system that can take down drone swarms.

“Foreign entities such as Dedrone by Axon and TechInsights and their affiliates have defied China’s strong objections to engage in activities such as so-called military-technical cooperation with Taiwan, made malicious remarks concerning China, and assisted foreign governments in suppressing Chinese companies,” China said in another statement.

The primary reason why it may have been added to the list is that it investigated Huawei, which is one of China’s crown jewels when it comes to tech companies. Although the country’s semiconductor industry has taken strides in recent years, TechInsight’s investigations in 2023 and 2024 revealed Huawei’s reliance on technologies and chips from TSMC, Samsung, and SK hynix, which might’ve contradicted Beijing’s strategic push for semiconductor self-reliance.

Because it’s located outside of China, TechInsights will likely still be able to make teardowns of Chinese tech it can acquire and publish its findings. Still, we’re unsure how China’s announcement will affect its business operations, especially as the company has not released any statement at the time of writing.

FollowTom’s Hardware on Google News, oradd us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.