In yet another round of sanctions on U.S. defense firms, China has targeted 20 American companies and their executives in response to Washington’s historic weapons sales package to Taiwan last week.
The big question is, do these sanctions have any real impact?
Taipei announced last week that the Trump administration is moving ahead with its largest-ever weapons sale to the island—a massive US$11.1 billion arms package. The deal, if approved by the US Congress, would mark the largest-ever American weapons package to Taiwan.
The package includes “Ukraine Tested” HIMARS mobile rocket launchers, powerful self-propelled howitzers, Javelin and TOW anti-tank missiles, surveillance and combat drones, plus spare parts and support for existing gear, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.
Beijing has lodged strong protests against the arms package for Taiwan.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said the package “seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, interferes in China’s internal affairs, and undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Raising the stakes, China has now sanctioned 20 U.S. defense firms and their executives.
The sanctioned companies are Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, L3Harris Maritime Services, Boeing in St Louis, Gibbs & Cox, Advanced Acoustic Concepts, VSE Corporation, Sierra Technical Services, Red Cat Holdings, Teal Drones, ReconCraft, High Point Aerotechnologies, Epirus, Dedrone Holdings, Area-I, Blue Force Technologies, Dive Technologies, Vantor, Intelligent Epitaxy Technology, Rhombus Power, and Lazarus Enterprises.
The movable and immovable property, and other assets, of these companies within China will be seized, and Chinese firms and individuals will be banned from conducting any business with them.
Furthermore, all exports and imports with these companies from China will be prohibited.
Beijing also sanctioned 10 senior executives of the companies for their roles in the arms sales, including Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and John Cuomo, president and CEO of VSE Corporation.
These 10 sanctioned executives will be denied visas and barred from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
The sanctions come at a time when China has been stepping up military drills and pressure around Taiwan. Beijing has said that it is committed to ‘reunifying’ Taiwan with mainland China and has not ruled out the use of force for this purpose.
Notably, a recent Pentagon report on the Chinese military warned that Beijing is planning to ‘reunify’ Taiwan with the mainland by 2027 with “brute force.”
“The PLA continues to make steady progress toward its 2027 goals, whereby the PLA must be able to achieve ‘strategic decisive victory’ over Taiwan,” the Pentagon report said, adding that in pursuit of these goals, the PLA continues to refine multiple military options to force Taiwan unification by brute force.
The massive US weapons sale to Taiwan could complicate Beijing’s plans for a military takeover of Taiwan. Beijing, therefore, wants to send a stern message to Washington over weapons sales to Taiwan.
However, this is not the first time that China has imposed sanctions on US defense firms for selling weapons to Taiwan. In fact, since 2023, there have been at least eight rounds of these sanctions, targeting various US defense firms.
For instance, in February 2023, China imposed sanctions on U.S. defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon over their continued arms sales to Taiwan.
China’s commerce ministry announced that the sanctions against Lockheed Martin and Raytheon include a ban on the two companies’ exports and imports to and from China, as a means “to prevent Chinese products from being used in their military business.”
Lockheed Martin has supplied Taiwan with F-16 fighter jets, radars, and air defense missiles, as well as other equipment, in recent years.
Raytheon has provided missiles, radars, and other defense articles to Taiwan.
The two companies have also formed a joint venture to produce Javelin anti-tank missiles, which Taiwan has acquired.
In 2024, China imposed sanctions on US defense firms at least four times, including in December, when Beijing targeted 13 American firms, including 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.
Again, in January this year, China announced that 28 U.S. companies were being added to its dual-use export control list. These companies included General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin Corporation, L3Harris Technologies, and Boeing, among others.
These sanctions are typically imposed through the Unreliable Entities List, export control lists, and countermeasures under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.
However, experts warn that these sanctions are mostly symbolic and yield minimal practical results. However, they do convey a strategic message and serve several non-economic purposes.
Do Chinese Sanctions Achieve Any Results?
Major US defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (RTX), Boeing Defense, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, L3Harris, and others already have very little to no direct business in China due to strict US export controls that prohibit the sale of military technology to China.
Also, these companies have negligible assets in China.
These sanctions do not meaningfully disrupt supply chains, revenue, or operations, as the companies didn’t do any substantial business with China anyway.
Furthermore, bans on executives entering China or doing business there are largely symbolic, given the rare travel or dealings.
The failure of these sanctions is also evident from the fact that the same companies have figured in multiple rounds of sanctions.
For instance, Lockheed Martin’s name has appeared in at least six rounds of sanctions, underscoring that it has not achieved any substantial results.
However, while economically ineffective against the companies, the sanctions serve other purposes for China.
They send strategic messages and publicly demonstrate Beijing’s opposition to US arms sales to Taiwan, framing them as violations of China’s sovereignty and the “one-China principle.”
For instance, in the statement issued on December 26, the Chinese foreign ministry said the package “seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, interferes in China’s internal affairs, and undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The sanctions also underscore that China is in a position to safeguard its interests and hit back at the US rather than passively accept US pressure.
They also send a message to the rest of the world that China will not passively accept any country’s interference in the Taiwan issue. So, while the sanctions might not dissuade the US from selling more arms to Taiwan, they can deter other countries.
The sanctions also send a message to the domestic audience in China, as well as to people in Taiwan, that Beijing can escalate things, economically or even militarily, to safeguard its interests in Taiwan.
For these reasons, even when these sanctions do not achieve much, China is likely to continue with them, at least for the foreseeable future.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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