Sputnik – Beijing said on Thursday it would take “necessary measures” after the United States announced new sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s military and industrial capabilities, and punished Chinese and foreign companies to do so.
In a sweeping package announced by the US Treasury Department on Wednesday, Washington targeted nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries.
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“The Chinese side urges the US to stop defaming and containing China and stop wantonly implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend the legal rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” said a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a message to the AFP agency.
Beijing added again that it was “neither a creator nor a party” to the Ukraine crisis, and said it had the right to develop “normal trade relations” with all countries, including Russia.
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“China has always resolutely opposed the United States’ implementation of illegal and unilateral sanctions against Chinese companies and the exercise of ‘long-arm jurisdiction,'” the spokesperson said.
The latest wave of U.S. sanctions came a week after President Joe Biden signed a long-delayed bill to provide new funding to Ukraine as Kiev’s military struggles to contain Russian advances.
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As part of the measures, the State Department blacklisted additional individuals and companies involved in Moscow’s energy, mining and metallurgical sectors. The nearly 300 targets hit included companies believed to allow Russia to acquire necessary technology and equipment from abroad.
Some of them were based in countries such as China, which is facing increasing pressure from Washington over the Russian operation in Ukraine. In addition to Beijing, the targeted non-Russian entities were located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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The Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Thursday (2) that the new sanctions “are another illegitimate subterfuge that will not be able to intimidate Russia.”
“The entire world watched another ‘hodgepodge’ of restrictions crafted by the administration [dos EUA]. This is an example of the continuation of numerous Russophobic actions carried out by the US in recent days. These include a multibillion-dollar aid package to Kiev, deliveries of dangerous long-range munitions to its puppets and promises of some ephemeral security guarantees to the regime,” Antonov said.
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The ambassador added that Washington, through an illegitimate stratagem, “only fights other states and enriches the soil of doubts about the constructiveness of America’s current role in the world […]. The United States is trying to intimidate our partners, including China, by seeking to disrupt normal channels of foreign trade cooperation. They are again targeting national high-tech, transport and energy companies in an attempt to ‘drive’ competitors out of the markets,” he said.
