BIS Entity List Correction: China Aviation Development Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd. Added for Military Modernization Support (Jun 2023)

Mechanism

Correcting amendment published June 21, 2023 (88 FR 40084, FR Doc 2023-13196), effective June 16, 2023. The original final rule (88 FR 38739, FR Doc 2023-12726, published June 14, 2023) named China Aviation Development Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd. in its supplementary information and preamble rationale, but the corresponding regulatory text inserting the entity into Supplement No. 4 to 15 CFR Part 744 was inadvertently omitted. This correcting amendment provides the missing regulatory text and codifies the listing retroactively to June 16, 2023.

Entity identifiers:

• Primary name: China Aviation Development Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd.
• Aliases: AVIC Harbin Bearing; Harbin AVIC Bearing Co Ltd; AviChina Harbin Bearing
• Addresses:

- No. 888 Nanjing Road, Hulan District, Harbin (New District Trust Handling Area), China - No. 81, East Wujinnan Road, Xilong Street, Harbin, China - North Side of Traffic Management Office, Linxi County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, China

• Parent structure: Subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), operating under

AECC Aero Science & Technology Co., Ltd.

License requirement: For all items subject to the EAR. Review policy: presumption of denial.

Rationale

The End-User Review Committee (ERC) determined the entity was acquiring and attempting to acquire US-origin items contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests under §744.11 of the EAR. Documented activities include:

• Design and manufacture of air-to-air missiles
• Hypersonic weapons development programs
• Hypersonic flight modeling (use of Western simulation and engineering software)
• Weapon lifecycle management using US-origin or US-origin-derived software tools

Precision bearings are critical dual-use components embedded throughout China's military aerospace supply chain: turbofan and turboshaft engine rotating assemblies, missile guidance systems, helicopter gearboxes, and UAV drive trains all rely on high-tolerance bearing sets that AVIC-affiliated manufacturers supply domestically to reduce import dependence. The EL designation closes a residual US-content channel in this supply chain.

Downstream implications

• Presumes denial for any US-origin item export (hardware, software, technology) to this entity;

US suppliers and re-exporters must apply for a licence that will almost certainly be refused.

• As a named AVIC sub-tier, the designation signals BIS is working down the AVIC corporate tree

beyond the parent-level entity list entries that predate 2023. Future corrections and rule cycles are likely to add further AVIC-affiliated precision-component suppliers.

• Western aerospace component suppliers with dual-use bearing product lines (e.g., SKF, Schaeffler,

NSK, Timken) may face increased scrutiny for transactions involving Chinese aerospace customers, even absent an EL designation on the buyer.

Open questions

• Whether the inadvertent omission from 88 FR 38739 created a compliance gap for US exporters

who shipped between June 12 and June 16, 2023 — the correction's retroactive effective date is June 16, not June 12 (the original rule's effective date).

• Extent to which AVIC Harbin Bearing's hypersonic-weapons activities overlap with PLA rocket-force

procurement chains already targeted under other BIS actions.