Sanctions show that Beijing will brook no challenge to China's core interests

By putting 10 United States entities on its Unreliable Entity List and 28 US entities on its Export Control List on Thursday, the first work day of the new year, Beijing is not only responding to the most recent arms sales to Taiwan and the probe into China's conventional semiconductor sector that the Joe Biden administration announced late last month, but also reminding the incoming US administration of China's resolve to guard its red lines.

All of the 10 US companies that China has identified as "unreliable" have participated in arms sales to Taiwan island and carried out so-called military and technical cooperation with its secessionist-minded authority despite Beijing's strong opposition. In doing so, they have violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques, and seriously undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing's move is thus fully justified as they have sought to undermine China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Taiwan question is China's internal affair, concerns China's core interests, and brooks no external interference. The one-China principle is a recognized basic norm of international relations and a universal consensus of the international community. China has therefore always firmly opposed the US selling weapons to the island, which is a breach of the US administration's avowal of not supporting "Taiwan independence".

The entities added to the Unreliable Entity List are prohibited from engaging in import and export activities related to China or making new investments in the country. Their senior managers are prohibited from entering China, and the work permit, stay or residence qualification of the senior managers of these enterprises in China has been revoked.

The decision to sanction the 10 US entities was made in accordance with the Foreign Trade Law, the National Security Law and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, according to the statement the Ministry of Commerce of China issued on Thursday when the sanctions came into force.

The decision to sanction the other 28 US entities was made in accordance with the Export Control Law and the Regulations on Export Control of Dual-Use Items, with the purpose of safeguarding national interests and fulfilling international obligations such as nuclear nonproliferation, the ministry said in a separate statement issued at the same time.

Dual-use items are prohibited from being exported to those on the Export Control List, and exporters must apply to the ministry for approval if there are exceptional circumstances.

Although the ministry has not specified the background for the sanctions on the 28 US entities, almost all of them are involved in weapons manufacturing or arms selling that are overtly and covertly related to some key issues that have close bearings on China's national security and interests and nuclear proliferation problems in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

The 38 entities are the most US entities China has sanctioned in one go, reflecting how the US under the Biden administration has intensified its challenging of China's red lines and core interests while carrying out its China-containment strategy, which is fundamentally flawed as it is based on a false perception of China's development.

"It is important to rise above estrangement and conflict with a broad vision," President Xi Jinping said in his New Year message. But when it comes to China's core interests, the space for that "rise" and "vision" have been defined clearly. It is to be hoped that the incoming US administration can accurately heed the unspoken part of the New Year message from Beijing and it is perceptive enough to give up any illusion that it can challenge Beijing on relevant issues.

Neither the Taiwan question nor China's aspiration to seek development obstructed the establishing of diplomatic relations between China and the US 45 years ago, when the two countries' differences were much larger and across a broader field than today. So neither of the two factors, which are essentially unchanged, should obstruct the healthy development of Sino-US relations today, when the two countries' common interests are much larger than they were then. The US can continue to benefit tremendously from China's development, so long as it displays the same courage, vision and wisdom that it did then.