A group of GOP senators, including Tom Cotton from Arkansas and Marco Rubio from Florida, urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday to blacklist companies that provide artificial intelligence to the Chinese military.

The senators complained that key technologies essential to the US’s competitiveness with China have found their way into the hands of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

These technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, biotechnology, and autonomous systems.

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The senators warned that the U.S. government was not doing enough to obstruct the flow of U.S. exports and investments to Chinese AI companies with PLA connections.

They cited a study by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) at Georgetown University that found that only 8% of the 273 companies that supply AI equipment to the PLA are blacklisted by the Department of Commerce. According to the study, the remaining 92% of Chinese AI companies are free to acquire US key technologies for use in military applications.

The senators asked the Department of Commerce’s Industry and Security Bureau to identify key American technologies that need protection from the Chinese Community Party and to blacklist PLA-AI suppliers.

“Both measures will help strengthen our national security and reassure Congress that the Department of Commerce takes its duties seriously,” said the senators.

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton from Arkansas, Marco Rubio from Florida, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee, Roger Wicker from Mississippi, and Bill Cassidy from Louisiana signed the letter.

Fox Business has reached out to both Secretary of State Raimondo and BIS and will update this story accordingly.

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Tensions between the US and China have increased in recent years due to the COVID-19 outbreak and hostilities around Taiwan. China has sent increasing numbers of fighter jets to the island recently while the US and its allies sail warships across the strait.

President Biden and President Xi Jinping held a virtual meeting on Tuesday to raise hopes for better relations between their countries.

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“If Sino-US relations cannot go back to paste, they should face the future,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian after the conversation, calling this “conducive to rising positive expectations … for the Sino-American Relationships”.