Defense: China threatens to sanction Raytheon, Lockheed Martin over Taiwan arms sales

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: A day after the Winter Olympic Games concluded in Beijing, which the US-led West and many other countries boycotted, China stepped up a feud with America as it threatened on Monday it will impose new, unspecified sanctions on US defense contractors Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin because of their arms sales to Taiwan.

This is being viewed as Beijing’s routine pressure tactic on American firms to influence the US’s official policy vis-à-vis Taiwan. It is still unclear what penalties it would impose. US weapons or military aircraft sales to Taiwan in 2010, 2015, and 2019 drew similar empty threats of sanctions.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced the move at a daily press briefing, citing a newly passed Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, effective 2021, the media reported.

The Chinese move was in response to a USD 100 million deal approved by the US for the maintenance of Taiwan’s missile defense systems by the two American companies.

“China once again urges the US government and relevant parties to stop arms sales to Taiwan and sever military ties with Taipei,” Wang appealed.

Beijing will continue to take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and security interests in accordance with the development of the situation,” he said without specifying.

Taiwan is a democratic, self-governed island that Communist-ruled China claims as its own territory ever since it split away amid a civil war in 1949.

Although the US has no formal relations with Taiwan,  it has increased weapons sales in recent years, angering China. The US law requires the government to ensure Taiwan can defend itself.

The US has been quick to respond to such Chinese threats. In October 2020, for example, a day after China sanctioned against Raytheon and other defense contractors and the American individuals concerned, the US State Department notified the Congress of its plans for a USD 2.37 billion sales of Harpoon attack missiles to Taiwan.

China maintains that US arms sale to Taiwan violates its so-called “One-China Principle” and provisions of agreements between Beijing and Washington.

Tensions over Taiwan have been mounting in recent months as Beijing has stepped up military activity around the island to try to force concessions from the pro-independence administration of President Tsai Ing-wen.

The Communist Party also is using the Chinese mainland’s growing economic weight to pressure other governments to cut diplomatic and unofficial ties with Taiwan, the media reported.

Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and other US defense industry giants face controls on sales to China of military and dual-use technologies that have both defense and commercial applications.

But they also have major civilian businesses and China is a huge market for aviation, among other industries.