Reported by James Pomfret and Michael Martina

Semiconductors and other restricted goods shipped through China and Hong Kong to fuel Russia’s war effort fell by a fifth this year previously undisclosed U.S. Commerce Department data shows, but Hong Kong remains a global sanctions evasion hotspot.

Transshipments through Hong Kong of Common High Priority Items (CHPL) — advanced components including microelectronics deemed by the U.S. and European Union as likely to be used for Russia’s war in Ukraine — fell 28% between January and May, a U.S. Commerce Department official told Reuters.

For the same period, transshipments of those items through mainland China, excluding Hong Kong, fell 19%, the official said.

A separate customs dataset from C4ADS, a Washington-based global security non-profit, showed that over 200 Hong Kong-registered firms shipped nearly $2 billion worth of goods to Russian buyers between August and December 2023.

The data, outlined in a new report by The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK) and reviewed by Reuters, showed $750 million worth of CHPL items — ranging from high-end chips by Nvidia and France’s Vectrawave, to lower-end chips from Texas Instruments and Intel — were shipped via Hong Kong between August and December 2023.

Some of these restricted goods were shipped to sanctioned Russian firms, CFHK said.

Read full report: https://www.reuters.com/technology/illicit-chip-flows-russia-seen-slowing-china-hong-kong-remain-transshipment-hubs-2024-07-21/