BEIJING: China has imposed sanctions on nine US defence companies today, the foreign ministry announced, describing the steps as retaliation for Washington’s approval of military equipment sales to Taiwan this week.
foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference that weapons sales by the US to Taiwan region have seriously violated the one-China principle, seriously infringed upon China’s sovereignty and security interests, and also damaged China-US ties.
Lin stated that Beijing strongly denounces and firmly opposes this and has lodged solemn representations with the US. He stated that China was “taking resolute countermeasures” by imposing sanctions on 9 US defence companies, which were announced in an earlier statement of the foreign ministry.
US-China Ties
The firms, which include aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corporation, will have their assets in China frozen and all transactions with China-based entities and people will be prohibited, the statement added.
The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained Taiwan’s key important partner and its largest arms supplier, sparking repeated condemnations from Beijing.
Washington and Beijing have repeatedly butted heads in recent years on a range of other matters related to trade, advanced technology and China’s increasingly assertive acts in the South China Sea.
Top White House official Jake Sullivan met high-ranking Chinese military official Zhang Youxia last month during the first trip to Beijing by a US national security adviser since 2016.
Zhang has warned during that meeting that the status of the self-ruled island was “the first red line that cannot be crossed in US-China ties”, demanding that the US “halts military collusion with Taiwan”.
