BEIJING: China has imposed sanctions and frozen all assets of 13 US military firms in retaliation for Washington’s planned arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing considers its “breakaway province.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the assets of all 13 firms are frozen and no China-based entities can transact or work with them.
“Taiwan independence would be wholly incompatible with peace across the Taiwan Straits,” Lin Jian, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry said.
“China cannot go along with such an action by the US upon Taiwan and, on account of it, change the strong course that maintains its opposition against Taiwan independence and goes for national reunification,” he said.
The outgoing Biden administration has already completed at least 17 arms sales to Taipei since 2021.
The US companies and executives sanctioned by China include BRINC Drones, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Red Six Solutions, Rapid Flight LLC, SYNEXXUS, Firestorm Labs, Shield AI, HavocAI, Neros Technologies, Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, Cyberlux Corporation, Domo Tactical Communications, Group W.
Among the executives targeted by Beijing include Barbara Borgonovi, Charles Woodburn, Gerard Hueber, Beth Edler, Richard D. Crawford, and Blake Resnick.
The Foreign Ministry added that their assets in China would be frozen while Chinese entities are banned from dealing with those sanctioned, while the sanctioned executives would not be allowed to enter China including Macau and Hong Kong.
Time for the imposition of sanctions on American companies by China coincides with the visit of the top Taiwanese regional leader, William Ching-te Lai, to three southern Pacific nations allied with Taipei.
“As a result, these US measures would merely push Taiwan to a dangerous situation of conflict,” said the spokesman, adding that Washington must uphold the one-China principle and three Chinese-US joint communiques.
