China said on Thursday it was adding dozens of US companies to its export control list to “safeguard national security and interests”.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would impose measures on 28 US entities and also ban exports of dual-use items to listed companies from Thursday, it reported. the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper seen as aligned with Beijing, and the the government-run Xinhua news agency. Dual-use items refer to those that can be used for civilian or military purposes.
China also on Thursday sanctioned 10 defense companies for military sales to Taiwan, the autonomous island that China claims as its own, and added them to China’s “Untrusted Entity List,” the ministry, according to AFP.
The moves come as Beijing prepares for President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House and after the Biden administration expanded its restrictions on Chinese companies amid an escalating back-and-forth. During his presidential campaign, Trump also floated the idea of imposing a rate up to 60% on all Chinese products.
China last month he said was investigating US microchip maker Nvidia for possible violations of Chinese antitrust laws.
China’s action comes less than a week later placed sanctions seven companies in response to recently announced US military sales and aid to Taiwan,
Still, Beijing’s sanctions targeting U.S. defense companies tend to have a soft impact given that U.S. military companies do not sell weapons or related goods to China. Some analysts think the one-time trade measures could also be limited.
“Changes to immigration, trade and tax policy under the second Trump administration will likely be significant, but they will fall short of some of the more dramatic proposals,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent report. “We expect tariffs on China and auto imports, but not a universal tariff, which would carry economic and political risks that we believe the White House would prefer to avoid.”
contributed to this report.