China Adds 28 US Companies to Export Control List, Including Defense Contractors

A Lockheed Martin F-35 fighting jet takes part in a flying display at the Farnborough Airshow in Farnborough, UK, on July 19, 2022. Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

Beijing added 28 U.S. companies to its export control list, the Chinese regime’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced on Thursday.

The companies include subsidiaries of weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and other U.S. defense companies.

A spokesperson for the ministry said the companies are “harming China’s national security and interests.”

Chinese exporters are banned from shipping dual-use goods to these companies without applying for permission.

Eight of the companies have previously been sanctioned by Beijing, including AEVEX Aerospace; LKD Aerospace; Anduril Industries; Boeing Defense, Space & Security; Maritime Tactical Systems; Pacific Rim Defense; Summit Technologies Inc.; and Lockheed Martin Corporation, which was previously sanctioned four times.

Thursday’s addition includes five subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, two subsidiaries of Raytheon, and a joint venture of the two corporations, as well as General Dynamics and three of its subsidiaries.

Others include L3 Harris Technologies, Clear Align LLC, Applied Technologies Group, Inter-Coastal Electronics, System Studies & Simulation, Intelligent Epitaxy Technology, IronMountain Solutions, and Axient.

The MOC has also included all sanctioned subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon on its “unreliable entities list.”

Among these, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles & Defense had been placed on the list since February 2023, and the other 10 were added on Thursday.

An MOC spokesperson said they were added to the list for selling arms to Taiwan.

On Dec. 22, a spokesperson for Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing “strongly deplores and firmly opposes” U.S. arms sales to Taiwan after the United States approved a potential sale worth $295 million.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has never ruled over Taiwan, claims sovereignty over the island.

Since the United States established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, the United States has stopped selling offensive weapons to Taiwan and continued to sell defensive weapons to deter a CCP invasion.

President Joe Biden has also used presidential drawdown authority to make several arms donations to the island.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who established diplomatic ties with Beijing, has said that then-de facto Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping privately agreed that the United States could sell defensive weapons to Taiwan, and CCP leaders publicly protested the sales.

Since 2020, the CCP has often announced sanctions after the U.S. Congress has approved potential arms sales to Taiwan.

So far, 59 companies and 11 executives have been targeted.

Last month, Beijing sanctioned 13 U.S. defense companies and six executives, banning Chinese companies from having business dealings with the entities and freezing the entities’ assets in China.

The sanctions were largely symbolic because the U.S. government already restricts defense exports to China.

Researchers at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research told The Epoch Times at the time that the sanctions were not likely to stop U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

In an email to The Epoch Times, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said: “Foreign Military Sales are government-to-government transactions and we work closely with the U.S. government on any military sales to international customers. Lockheed Martin closely adheres to United States government policy with regard to conducting business with foreign governments.”

Other defense companies and the U.S. Department of Defense have not responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.