China announced this Friday (21) sanctions against several companies belonging to the American group Lockheed Martin and their directors for selling weapons to Taiwan, something that, according to Beijing, “severely interferes in China’s internal affairs and seriously harms its sovereignty and integrity territorial”.
On Thursday (20), China had already condemned the United States State Department’s approval of the sale of a combat drone and missile system to Taiwan worth US$360.2 million, warning that the The Taiwan issue is “the red line” between Washington and Beijing.
Among the sanctioned companies, whose assets in China will be frozen, are several subsidiaries of the Lockheed Martin group, as well as executives James Teclit, Frank St. John and Jesse Malefe.
Those sanctioned will be banned from carrying out operations in the country and will be denied entry into Chinese territory, including Hong Kong and Macau, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a brief statement.
The ministry’s spokesman, Lin Jian, declared on Thursday that the US decision to sell weapons to Taiwan constitutes a “serious violation of China’s sovereignty and security interests”, “seriously harms relations between China and the US ” and “threatens peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait
Lin further stated that this decision “sends a wrong signal to the separatist forces” on the island.
The Taiwan issue is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly due to the fact that Washington is Taiwan’s main weapons supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with the Asian giant.
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up pressure on the island, which it considers a rebel province since Kuomintang nationalists retreated there after losing the war against the communist army in 1949.
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