China has escalated its counter-offensive against the United States by intensifying its sanctions on American defence firms. In less than a week, Beijing today announced a second round of sanctions on ten US companies. The reason - sale of arms to Taiwan.
With this, China has, in total, sanctioned or penalised 45 US entities - 17 firms and 28 entities - over varying degrees of penalties. While 17 firms have been sanctioned, 28 others have been penalised by adding them to an export ban list.
Among those sanctioned today are some of the biggest defence manufacturers globally - subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics.
In a statement issued by China's Ministry of Commerce, all ten US firms have been added to Beijing's "Unreliable entities list" for "participating in selling of arms to Taiwan". It further stated that these companies will henceforth "be prohibited from all import and export activities" in the country. Neither will they be allowed to invest in China.
Their senior management has been banned from entering the country too, the Chinese government said. The latest action against US corporations come just six days after seven other companies were sanctioned in a similar manner. Among those were a subsidiary of Boeing Defense named Insitu.
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, is a flashpoint between Beijing and Washington. Beijing claims the entire island-nation as a part of China. Taiwan considers itself an independent nations. While China is a communist country, Taiwan is a democracy.
China has not ruled out the use of force to take over the country. Even in his New Year's eve address to the nation, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued threat over Taiwan and cautioned anyone who tries to stop that.
China has also carried out three rounds of major military drills since Taiwan's democratic election saw President Lai Ching-te come to power in May.
ALSO READ: XI JINPING'S THREAT AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA AND TAIWAN
For Washington, Taiwan is a strategic ally in Asia and United States is Taipei's largest supplier of weapons too. Defending democracy over communism has also been a principled decision of the United States - the Cold War with Russia was entirely based on this principled stand.
Showing its commitment towards defending Taiwan, US President Joe Biden had given his nod for a $571 million defence aid to Taiwan less than a month ago.
While both China and Taiwan claim sovereignty over the island nation, Beijing has said "such actions (by US firms) interfere in China's internal affairs, and undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity".
Besides the sanctions, China has also penalised 28 US entities, mostly defence companies, by adding them to its Export Control List, banning the export of dual-use items to them permanently.
General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Boeing Defense, Space & Security were among those added "to safeguard national security and interests, and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation", the ministry said.
(Inputs from AFP)
