After the airship was shot down. China imposes sanctions on two U.S. arms companies
China on Thursday imposed trade and investment sanctions on two U.S. companies for selling arms to Taiwan, raising tensions between the world's two largest economies, according to theBloomberg“.
The network explained "CNN"The imposition of the sanctions came a day after Beijing vowed to take "countermeasures" in response to Washington's handling of a suspected Chinese surveillance blimp that entered U.S. airspace and was shot down by the U.S. earlier this month.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced in a statement that Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are "prohibited from exporting goods to China or making new investments" in the country.
The two companies have been added to the list of "unreliable" companies whose activities have been banned, due to their potential to threaten national sovereignty and security and harm the country's development interests, the ministry said.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a statement on Friday morning saying the measures were part of "normal law enforcement actions" for arms sales by the two companies to Taiwan that "seriously undermined" China's national security and territorial integrity.
The sanctions came just days after the US Department of Commerce banned six Chinese companies from acquiring US technology without government authorization.
The Ministry of Commerce said the companies are linked to the Chinese military's aerospace program.
Lockheed Martin operates mainly in the aerospace, security, electronic systems, information technology and space industries, while Raytheon specializes in defense systems and is the world's largest producer of guided missiles, according to the Associated Press.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are also subject to fines for arms sales to Taiwan dating back to September 2020, and senior executives will be barred from entering and working in China.
It was not immediately clear how Beijing would implement the sanctions.
While the U.S. prohibits arms sales to China, some U.S. defense contractors have ties to civilian sectors.
A Lockheed Martin spokesperson told CNN in a statement: "We do business with more than 70 countries around the world, and all of our international sales are strictly regulated by the U.S. government."
Raytheon did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
According to Bloomberg, shares of Lockheed were down 1.3% at 11:22 a.m. in New York, while Raytheon was down 0.6%.
Political tensions between the United States and China escalated after the balloon incident, which Beijing says was intended for scientific research and derailed.
In the aftermath of the incident, Washington accused China of overseeing an international program of surveillance and espionage in many parts of the world.
Beijing has denied the allegations, and in turn accused the United States this week of "illegally" launching high-altitude balloons into its airspace more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022, including in the western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.
CNN reported on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials are evaluating the possibility that the suspected spy balloon did not intentionally enter U.S. airspace.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his visit to China earlier this month.
The visit was expected to help ease tensions between the two superpowers following a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia in November.
Biden said on Thursday that he expects to speak soon with Xi following the blimp incident "to get to the bottom of it," but stressed that he "will not apologize" for "shooting down that blimp."
Biden emphasized that the United States will continue to engage with China, reiterating his position that his country seeks "competition, not conflict."
Biden explained that the current situation "underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication" between U.S. diplomats and their Chinese counterparts.
(Source: Alhurra)
