China decides to impose sanctions against the heads of two U.S. defense companies

China will impose sanctions on top managers of U.S. defense companies Raytheon Technologies and Boeing Defense for selling weapons to Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said this at a regular briefing on Friday.

“To protect China’s sovereignty and security interests, the Chinese government has decided to impose sanctions against the chairman and CEO of Raytheon Technologies and the president and CEO of Boeing Defense involved in these arms sales,” she said.

The diplomat said the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan seriously violate the “one-China” principle and the provisions of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués, especially the August 17 communiqué, severely damage China’s sovereignty, security interests as well as Sino-US relations, peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. As she stressed, China strongly opposes and condemns it.

“China once again calls on the U.S. government and relevant parties in the U.S. to respect the ‘one China’ principle and the provisions of the three joint Sino-U.S. communiqués, to stop arms sales to Taiwan and military ties with the island, and to stop artificially creating tension factors in the Taiwan Strait,” the diplomat pointed out. Mao Ning also noted that depending on further developments, China will continue to take appropriate measures to protect state sovereignty and security interests.

On September 2, the United States announced three contracts totaling $1.1 billion for arms sales and technical services to Taiwan: equipment and logistics support for radar stations, 60 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles, four ATM-84L-1 Harpoon Block II missiles, and 100 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder tactical air-to-air missiles. The U.S. Congress has yet to study and approve these agreements. U.S. commentators are confident that lawmakers will support the sale.