China imposed sanctions on more than a dozen U.S. defense firms and several American defense industry executives on Thursday in retaliation for the Biden administration’s latest batch of arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Washington’s approval last month of a $387 million defense package for Taiwan, which included spare parts for fighter jets, had “seriously damaged China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China named 13 American firms in its action on Thursday, including the drone makers RapidFlight and BRINC Drones. Six executives were also sanctioned, including Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon, and Blake Resnick, the founder and chief executive of BRINC Drones.
In announcing the sanctions, Beijing invoked its recently established Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, which is part of an expanding assortment of countermeasures mirroring many of the punitive actions that the United States takes against China.
China last imposed sanctions on U.S. defense firms in response to arms sales to Taiwan in September.
The moves, which forbid the companies from doing business in China and the executives from traveling there, typically have little practical effect, because U.S. companies that make armaments are already largely barred from doing business in China by U.S.-imposed restrictions.
“The P.R.C. under Xi Jinping has been increasingly open to using economic levers to exert pressure on external parties,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, referring to the People’s Republic of China and its top leader.
“That said, given that U.S. defense contractors have restrictions in what business they can do with the P.R.C., the sanctions are largely symbolic and perhaps intend to warn defense firms from other countries against selling equipment and services to Taiwan,” Mr. Chong continued.
China regards Taiwan as the “core of its core interests.” Mr. Xi has called reunification with the island “inevitable,” and said that Beijing would use force if necessary.
The question of arms sales has been one of the most disputed aspects of how Washington and Beijing interpret Taiwan’s status. The United States adheres to the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 that obligate it to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons to ensure its stability. In 1982, Washington and Beijing issued a communiqué agreeing that arms sales would decrease as the status of Taiwan approached a peaceful resolution.
China says that the United States has violated that promise. The United States says that China’s growing military pressure, including daily flybys and war games encircling the island, has made it ever more important that Taiwan is sufficiently armed.
It remains to be seen how the incoming Trump administration will deal with the issue. President-elect Donald J. Trump has sent mixed signals about his support for the island democracy. He has called for Taiwan to sharply increase its spending on defense and complained about its dominance in the global semiconductor industry. At the same time, he has proposed cabinet members who are sympathetic toward Taiwan, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as secretary of state.
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