China reportedly started the year with a new set of sanctions against U.S. defense contractors, in response to the Biden administration’s recent increase in arms sales to Taiwan.
The country also issued a new warning to President-elect Donald Trump regarding the tools that Beijing can employ to safeguard its national interests.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing identified 10 companies as “unreliable entities” and prohibited them from conducting business in China.
Additionally, the ministry announced that it would prohibit an additional 28 companies from purchasing unspecified components that may have dual civilian and military applications.
Unlike some of the hundreds of Chinese entities with U.S. operations that Washington has targeted in punishments, such as Huawei Technologies, the majority of the defense contractors named have previously been sanctioned by China and have minimal trade with the country.
The measures are significant as symbolic reminders of the type of measures that China could impose more broadly against American corporations in any future conflict, despite the fact that their immediate impact is likely to be minimal.
Xinhua News Agency reported that the targeted companies have engaged in military technology cooperation and armaments sales with Taiwan in recent years, despite China’s strong opposition, and the ministry cited the need to protect national security in its action on Thursday.
The U.S. is Beijing’s primary source of friction due to its claim to Taiwan. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China frequently exercises its military prowess by deploying jet fighters and warships to illustrate its readiness to conduct an invasion or impose a trade embargo on the island.
Despite Beijing’s warnings, every U.S. administration has sold munitions to Taiwan, most recently Abrams tanks from General Dynamics that were ordered during Trump’s first term and just recently delivered by the Biden administration.
The United States is obligated to regard threats to the democratically run island as a matter of “grave concern” and to provide Taiwan with defensive weaponry under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
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