The Chinese communist regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced sanctions against six U.S. defense companies and five senior executives over an unspecified recent arms sale to Taiwan.
The ministry said in a statement that the sale violates the “one-China principle,” interferes in China’s internal affairs, and undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Beijing’s sanctions freeze the assets of U.S. defense companies Anduril Industries, Maritime Tactical Systems, Pacific Rim Defense, AEVEX Aerospace, LKD Aerospace, and Summit Technologies, effective on July 12.
The assets in China of three executives from Anduril and two executives of drone maker AeroVironment Inc. also have been frozen, and the executives will be denied entry to China.
Other entities and individuals affected by the sanctions didn’t respond by publication time to requests for comment by The Epoch Times.
Retired Maj. Gen. Yu Tsung-chi in Taiwan, an adviser to the Formosa Republican Association, told The Epoch Times that the sanctions are more symbolic since major U.S. defense companies don’t have many business dealings with China, because U.S. military technology is now very strictly controlled.
The U.S. government wouldn’t allow defense companies to set up in China, according to Maj. Gen. Yu.
“There may be private assets, but they should have been transferred out long ago,” he said. “This is not the first time that China has imposed sanctions on U.S. defense companies.”
Analysts say that selling arms to Taiwan is a long-term policy of the United States and that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “sanctions” will only accelerate the decoupling between the United States and China, and prompt the United States to provide greater support to Taiwan.
On the same day that the Chinese regime announced the sanctions, the U.S. State Department issued a statement imposing visa restrictions on CCP officials involved in religious and human rights oppression in response to Beijing’s sanctions on U.S. companies, which include “the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, persistent human rights abuses in Tibet, and transnational repression around the world.”
Chung Chih-tung, assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times that the CCP mostly hopes the sanctions could deter U.S. defense companies.
“However, I think this deterrent effect is very limited, because, in fact, this isn’t the first time it has imposed sanctions. It has also sanctioned Boeing and Lockheed Martin before,” he said, adding that it hasn’t affected these companies’ arms sales to Taiwan.
Taiwan and the United States held a Defense Industry Symposium in Taipei on June 6. A delegation of 27 defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, BAE Systems, AeroVironment, and Northrop Grumman attended the conference.
Maj. Gen. Yu said that U.S. foreign arms sales are a government decision and a joint decision between the Ministry of National Defense and the State Council.
“Such sales must be approved by these government departments, so sanctioning these arms dealers is actually challenging the U.S. government,” he said.
“Basically, using this kind of sanctions means that [the worsening of] Sino–US relations are irreversible. The two sides will probably be like that: China imposes sanctions on U.S. personnel, and the U.S. will also take the same measures against Chinese officials who are involved in serious violation of human rights.”
Wang Shiow-wen, an assistant researcher at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said: “For Sino–US relations, it has become a bipartisan consensus in the United States to prevent Taiwan from falling into the hands of the CCP and not being destroyed by the CCP’s military attacks. No matter who is elected as the president of the United States in November, the U.S.’s security support for Taiwan will continue.
“The CCP’s punishment of U.S. defense companies is just a temporary act and will not help U.S.–China relations.
“These sanctions on U.S. defense companies and senior executives, freezing their assets in China, will only force other U.S. military-industrial companies to accelerate their separation from China,” she said.
Maj. Gen. Yu said he believes that the CCP’s sanctions not only fail to have any deterrent effect, but also “may further encourage the U.S. government to make greater determination, provide Taiwan with more weapons for defense, and prompt the United States to make bolder decisions.”
