The Chinese government announced on the 26th that it will impose sanctions on 20 U.S. defense contractors and 10 executives, criticizing the recent approval of a large-scale U.S. arms sale to Taiwan.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, "The United States recently announced a large-scale arms sale to the Taiwan region of China, which seriously violates the 'One China' principle and the three major China-U.S. joint communiqu?s, constitutes grave interference in China's internal affairs, and severely undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The sanctioned companies include U.S. aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Systems, the maritime division of L3Harris, Boeing's St. Louis branch, Gibbs & Cox, and Advanced Acoustic Concepts.
Other companies on the sanctions list are VSE, Sierra Technical Services, Red Cat Holdings, Teal Drones, Dedrone, Area-I, all of which are involved in military drones, as well as drone defense companies such as Epirus, ReconCraft, High Point Aerotechnologies, Blue Force Technologies, Dive Technologies, Vanter, Intelligent Epitaxy, Rhombus Power, and Lazarus. The sanctions include freezing all assets these companies hold within China and prohibiting transactions with Chinese firms.
Additionally, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed 10 individuals, including the CEOs of these companies, under personal sanctions. Their assets in China will be frozen and they will be banned from entering the country.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "Any actions that cross the line or provoke on the Taiwan issue will face a strong counterattack from China, and any companies or individuals involved in arms sales to Taiwan must pay the price for their wrongdoing."
This measure comes in response to the U.S. government's approval on the 18th of an arms sale to Taiwan worth $11.1054 billion (about 16.0562 trillion won). The package includes a large number of offensive weapons and is considered one of the largest deals ever, surpassing the $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets in 2019 during the first Trump administration.
The weapons to be sold include the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, which has been used in the war in Ukraine, the M107A7 self-propelled howitzer, the Altius-700M and Altius-600 loitering munitions (attack drones), Javelin anti-tank missiles, and TOW anti-tank missiles. The package also contains tactical mission network software, spare and maintenance parts for the AH-1W helicopter, and follow-up support for maintenance of the Harpoon anti-ship missile.
However, Bloomberg News pointed out that the impact of these sanctions is likely to be limited, as most of the targeted companies and executives have no business presence in China, and some are already on the Chinese Ministry of Commerce's list of unreliable entities.
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