Beijing responds to Trump administration’s approval weapons package for Taipei with restrictions on firms and executives.
China Sanctions US Companies
China is upset the US is providing military equipment to China. In response, China Sanctions Boeing, Other U.S. Companies
The Chinese government imposed sanctions on 20 U.S. defense companies and 10 of their executives on Friday in retaliation for the Trump administration’s approval of a large package of weapons for sale to Taiwan.
The targets include Northrop Grumman, Boeing’s St. Louis-based defense unit and Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries. Preparing for a potential conflict with China has been a major focus for Luckey and his startup, which owns three of the sanctioned companies.
Beijing said it would freeze the assets of the sanctioned entities, ban them from Chinese transactions and prohibit the executives from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The move is largely symbolic because U.S. defense contractors generally do little business in China. It emphasizes Beijing’s claim over Taiwan, the democratically ruled island that it has vowed to take by force if necessary.
In announcing the sanctions, China’s Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. weapons approval “interferes in China’s internal affairs, and seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The U.S. has sold Taiwan arms for years. Last week, Washington approved a $11.1 billion package that includes Himars missile launchers and howitzers designed to help Taiwan slow a Chinese attack.
The Trump administration’s approval of the sales addressed concerns among U.S. lawmakers who worried about President Trump’s deepening ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two are scheduled to meet in April.
The U.S. is committed to providing Taiwan with defensive weaponry under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, and every administration since then has complied.
China Developing Options to Threaten Taiwan With ‘Brute Force’
Things are heating up in relations with China. Also note China Developing Options to Threaten Taiwan With ‘Brute Force,’ Pentagon Says
China is making steady progress on developing more sophisticated weapons and expanding its armed force’s ability to operate away from the mainland, including against Taiwan, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of Beijing’s military strength.
Beijing was still uncertain as of last year that it could invade and take over Taiwan, despite the Chinese military’s determination to have the capabilities to seize the island forcibly by 2027, the report said.
The “PLA continues to refine multiple military options to force Taiwan unification by brute force,” the report said, referring to the People’s Liberation Army, the formal name of China’s military. But China’s leaders “remain unsure of the PLA’s readiness to successfully seize Taiwan,” it said.
Chinese forces conducted exercises in 2024 to test “essential components” of an amphibious invasion, a firepower strike and a maritime blockade against Taiwan, the report said.
China has significantly stepped up its probing of Taiwan’s air and maritime boundaries since 2023, the report said, with activity within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone increasing more than 60%, from 1,703 incidents that year to 2,771 last year, the report said. China’s warships also stepped up their operations in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has said it would seize the island by force if necessary.
The decades-old U.S. position on China’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan has been to maintain what officials call strategic ambiguity. The idea is to leave China guessing whether the U.S. would directly intervene in a clash, and at the same time restrain Taiwan from declaring outright independence and triggering a Chinese attack.
“China’s historic military buildup has made the U.S. homeland increasingly vulnerable,” the latest report said. At 100 pages, it is about half as long as the China report released by the Biden administration last year.
“There seems to be less detail on military hardware than in past years, and a surprising emphasis on improved U.S.-China relations and mil-to-mil cooperation,” said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who closely tracks China’s missile developments.
The report said: “The PLA continues to make steady progress toward its 2027 goals, whereby the PLA must be able to achieve ‘strategic decisive victory’ over Taiwan, ‘strategic counterbalance’ against the United States in the nuclear and other strategic domains, and ‘strategic deterrence and control’ against other regional countries.”
“The report clarifies publicly for the first time that the PLAN intends to operate NINE aircraft carriers by 2035…which would put its carrier fleet just behind that of the United States,” Ryan Fedasiuk of the American Enterprise Institute posted on X. PLAN refers to the People’s Liberation Army Navy, the formal name of China’s naval forces.
The U.S. Navy has 11 aircraft carriers.
Strategic uncertainty is no longer working. A war with China is increasingly likely.
“China is upset the US is providing military equipment to China.” Perfect typo…
I say this because the entire issue is that China considers TAIWAN a CHINESE HOLDING. Which, of course, it is NOT.
More and more it became clear to me that whoever owns what is just a matter of power. There’s always a justification to help sideliners turn their head.
If sanctions exclude those 20 cobtractors from conducting business with China then it means that they will mot be allowed to buy Chinese REEs and products from them. Did I get it wrong?
US is maneuvering DIVIDE and RULE strategy from colonial playbook.
US recognise ONE CHINA but never and NEVER support peaceful unification.
There is no chance peaceful unification of North and South Korea while US is occupying South Korea.
But time is on China’s side.
There will be unification finally I think in 10 years time.
China opened the Guangzhou futures market and is buying/stockpiling/delivering silver in addition to Platinum and Palladium as strategic industrial metals. It is part of Chinas building out its modern electrical grid and EV’s. Use in manufacturing has exploded. Samsung’s new silver/carbon solid state battery uses 5 grams of silver per cell and the two new Solar panel standards that China has adopted use 50 – 80 % more silver paste. BYD is also testing its own silver/carbon solid state battery.
The huge run-up in silver prices while the US banks are on vacation is not an accident as physical silver is in extremely short supply. Expect volatility as the US banks try to extricate themselves from their massive short position and contain the financial damage.
Famous last words “It’s different this time”.
China will roll out their Kung-fu humanoid robots!
EngineAI T800: Born to Disrupt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGcQqyCaG5s&t=33s
Red China has proven itself a business risk. It’s time to disengage.
You might want to check with our former allies as to who is a reliable trading partner.
Trump has lost trust just when we needed it the most.
Got a garden, farm and mining stocks?
If you listen to Louis Vincent Gave, who is a French businessman that has lived in Hong Kong for over twenty years and runs a macro investment research business along with an investment fund, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is very unlikely. See the 53:00 minute mark of https://youtu.be/OuJxZ67PwNk?si=YzX8Bm_CBtYFBQeO. I have heard him answer the Taiwan question many times with basically the same outcome, not likely unless forced.
From the typical DJT playbook, I would ask “what is the best deal for all parties?” For the US, the result would be continued access to semi-conductors and a (somewhat) reliable ally on China’s doorstep. But for Taiwan, it would be full recognized independence. For China, the elimination of any ambiguity: Taiwan is China, and of course, the semiconductors are for China. That’s three separate, and apparently mutually exclusive goals. This is where money comes in. Present value of unfettered stream of semiconductors going into the future? There’s a number out there, and it comes down to negotiation. Independence? Don’t be silly, that is at most a bargaining chip, maybe the first to slide across the table to the Chinese (and of course by the US, if the number is right). High falutin’ principles like the sovreignty of Taiwanese people? Have you met DJT?
It’s pretty arrogant to assume that “full recognized independence” is in Taiwan’s best interests, when anyone can discern that this independence will not be recognized by the one party that really matters – that is, China. It is as foolish a notion as expecting that Ukraine could join whatever military alliance it wishes along Russia’s border. Now we see that the Ukraine as it was pre-2022 will cease to exist.
BTW, DJT’s playbook does not appear to involve in any way “what is the best deal for all parties”. He goes for win-lose deals that mostly ignore the inherent interests of the other party, and seeing he doesn’t get his way, turns it into a lose-lose situation.
Agree. Trump doesn’t care about the sovereignty of the Taiwanese people. Trump is all about $$ and how he looks. As soon as it becomes clear to Trump that he is in over his head, he will make up all sorts of garbage about Taiwan and their people (much like calling Zelensky (who is Jewish) a Nazi or stating Z is ungrateful) establishing the foundation for him to backoff. His antics are getting boring as they are so predictable.
Still puzzled about Trump’s rant about viper snakes in Peru. Could be Dementia but it also could have been to weaken Peru by hampering their tourism economy; Peru is agriculturally and minerally rich and China has been buying up their land. Trump always has a devious agenda.
Zelensky is not a Nazi. He’s an autocrat and thief who does the bidding of Ukrainian neo-Nazi’s. So, it’s totally different. If you want to defend the “sovereignty of the Taiwanese people”, feel free.
Peru and China have established direct trade of Silver and other strategic or PM’s at this point. It is a good way to get rid of USD’s.
Do you mean to say that the smallest droplets of Jewish blood (Z is not all that Jewish) are an absolute antidote to being a Nazi? What about the thousands of Jews who served in the third Reich and in the army? What about the ultra nationalist & socialist Zionist crowd? Fascism is most of all a cluster of behaviours.
Jennifer doesn’t understand the different perspectives on what a “Nazi” is. To someone in Western Europe or the US, a Nazi is “someone who hates Jews”. In Russia, a Nazi is “someone who hates Russians”. After all, more Russians died at the hands of Germans than did Jews. In the Ukraine, people who aligned themselves with the Nazis – whether in WWII or now – do so because of anti Russian sentiment. Jews – especially now – are not their focus. That’s why a Jewish oligarch like Ivor Kolomoyskyi could support western Ukrainian neo-Nazis and why Ukrainian neo-Nazis can tolerate Zelenskyy – as long as Russians continue to die – whether they be Russians with Russian citizenship or Russians with Ukrainian citizenship (paper Ukrainians).
Americans already have playbooks about how they would destroy Taiwan, especially the chip sector, if a threat to Taiwan was appearing to materialize. How great would that be for Taiwan’s future and independence? Being a proxy of American geopolitical interests is the sure way to suicide. Better to do what Finland & Austria did: Become neutral, and have all the super-powers withdraw from your territory and leave you be.