China on Thursday announced sanctions against two US defense companies over what it called their support for arms sales to Taiwan.
The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held within China. It also bars the companies’ management from entering the country.
Filings showed that General Dynamics operates a half-dozen Gulfstream and jet aviation service operations in China, which remains heavily reliant on foreign aerospace technology even as it attempts to build its own presence in the field. The company also helps make the Abrams tanks Taiwan is purchasing to replace outdated armor.
Photo: Reuters
General Atomics produces the Predator and Reaper drones used by the US military.
Chinese authorities did not go into details about the company’s alleged involvement in supplying arms to Taiwan.
Beijing has long threatened such sanctions, but has rarely issued them as its economy reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, high unemployment and a sharp decline in foreign investment.
“The continued US arms sales to China’s Taiwan region seriously violate the ‘one China’ principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques interfere in China’s internal affairs, and undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Sanctions were leveled under Beijing’s recently enacted Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, which was established in retaliation against US financial and travel restrictions on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in China and Hong Kong.
General Dynamics’ fully owned entities are registered in Hong Kong.
The two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China banned US firms Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Missiles & Defense from the Chinese market in retaliation, as one of their planes and a missile was used to shoot down a suspected spy balloon that flew over the US last year.
Similar balloons have frequently been discovered floating over Taiwan and into the Pacific Ocean.
Despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties, the US remains Taiwan’s most important source of diplomatic support and supplier of military hardware, from fighter jets to air defense systems.
Taiwan has also been investing heavily in its own defense industry, producing sophisticated missiles and submarines.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS