During the past few years, the U.S. government has placed scores of Chinese companies and their subsidiaries on what is known as the U.S. Entity List, which makes it harder for American firms to export certain goods to them.If a company is placed on the Entity List the restrictions only apply to dual use items with military implications that are subject to the government's Export Administration Regulations This economic punishment has been used against the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, as well as artificial intelligence and surveillance camera firms like SenseTime and HikVision. But how effective is the Entity List?One expert clarified that even for Huawei, being on the US Entity List does not completely cut them off from buying American goods; only certain types of goods. The Commerce Dept. could use a stronger "denial order" -- which is not frequently done -- that would completely halt any export of American made goods. This was briefly done with ZTE, before the sanctions were lifted