China said on Thursday it was adding dozens of US companies to its export control list to “protect national security and interests”.
China's Ministry of Commerce said it would impose measures against 28 US entities and ban the export of dual-use goods to the companies named, starting Thursday. in Global Times, a Chinese daily newspaper considered to be collusive with Beijing in state news agency Xinhua. Dual-use items refer to those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
On Thursday, China also imposed sanctions on 10 defense firms for selling military equipment to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its own, adding them to China's “Unreliable Organizations List,” the ministry said, 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 restrictions on Chinese firms amid an escalating back-and-forth. During his presidential campaign, Trump also floated the idea of imposing a tariff up to 60% on all Chinese goods.
China last month said it investigated US microchip maker Nvidia for possible violations of Chinese antitrust laws.
China's action came less than a week after that placed sanctions against seven companies in response to recently announced US military sales and aid to Taiwan,
However, Beijing's sanctions against U.S. defense companies tend to have a muted impact, given that U.S. military firms do not sell weapons or related goods to China. Some analysts believe that mutual trade measures may also be limited.
“Changes in immigration, trade and fiscal policy under a second Trump administration are likely to be significant but fall short of some of the more dramatic proposals,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent report. “We expect tariffs on Chinese imports and autos, but not across-the-board tariffs, which would carry economic and political risks that we think the White House would prefer to avoid.”
contributed to this report.