U.S. sanctions firms over South China Sea islands
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration added 24 Chinese companies on Wednesday to a government list that bans them from purchasing certain sensitive U.S. products, citing their role in helping the Chinese military construct artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
The Trump administration has penalized dozens of Chinese companies in previous months by adding them to the socalled entity list over national security concerns related to advanced technology and alleged human rights violations against Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region. But this is the first time that the administration has used the entity list in relation to China’s encroachment in the South China Sea.
The State Department also announced that it would begin imposing visa restrictions on Chinese citizens “responsible for, or complicit in, either the largescale reclamation, construction, or militarization of disputed outposts in the South China Sea.” Such individuals would be barred from the United States, and their family members may also face visa restrictions, the announcement said.
The move is the latest in a series of actions that have further soured relations between China and the United States. President Trump, who has accused Beijing of not doing enough to prevent the coronavirus from becoming a global pandemic, has increasingly looked to punish China.
Beijing has been rapidly building artificial islands in the disputed waters since 2013, dredging and constructing more than 3,000 acres of new land, including air defense and antiship missile features, the Commerce Department said in its announcement.
The named companies include several divisions of China Communications Construction Co., a contractor for many of the “Belt and Road” infrastructure projects that China has built around the world.