{"id":44471,"date":"2021-01-15T06:24:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T06:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44471"},"modified":"2021-01-15T06:24:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T06:24:26","slug":"in-last-china-swipe-trump-hits-officials-firms-with-us-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44471","title":{"rendered":"In last China swipe, Trump hits officials, firms with US bans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In its waning days, the administration of US President Donald Trump has taken another swipe at China and its biggest firms, imposing sanctions on officials and companies for alleged misdeeds in the South China Sea and imposing an investment ban on nine more firms.<\/p>\n

The moves will further increase tensions with China, Washington\u2019s strategic rival in Asia, days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday. The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Executives of state-owned enterprises, officials of the Chinese Communist Party and military, along with oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), will face new restrictions for allegedly using coercion against states with rival South China Sea claims.<\/p>\n

Senior US officials told reporters on a call on Thursday the new restrictions on CNOOC \u2013 the nation\u2019s main deepwater explorer \u2013 will not apply to crude oil, refined fuels and liquid natural gas and do not apply to existing joint ventures with CNOOC that do not operate in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Investment ban<\/h2>\n

Nine Chinese firms were added to the Pentagon\u2019s list of companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military, including plane maker Comac and phone maker Xiaomi Corp.<\/p>\n

Smartphone maker Xiaomi is among nine companies that the US has added to its list of companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military [File: Angel Garcia\/Bloomberg]<\/figure>\n

Those companies will be subject to a new US investment ban which forces US investors to divest holdings of the blacklisted firms by November 11, 2021.<\/p>\n

In its response, the Chinese embassy referred to Foreign Ministry comments on January 7 accusing Washington of \u201cpinning political and ideological labels on economic and trade issues and exploiting its state power to crack down on foreign companies, under the pretext of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US has long opposed China\u2019s extensive territorial claims in the South China Sea, a potentially resource-rich area that is also a strategic trade route. Washington accuses Beijing of intimidating states such as Vietnam and the Philippines that have competing claims there.<\/p>\n

China accuses Washington of trying to destabilise the region by sending warships and planes to the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States stands with Southeast Asian claimant states seeking to defend their sovereign rights and interests, consistent with international law,\u201d Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in announcing the sanctions.<\/p>\n

Pompeo said Washington was imposing visa restrictions on executives of Chinese state-owned enterprises and officials of the Chinese Communist Party and navy.<\/p>\n

He said the sanctions were directed against those \u201cresponsible for, or complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, construction, or militarisation of disputed outposts in the South China Sea, or use of coercion against Southeast Asian claimants to inhibit their access to offshore resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restrictions could also apply to immediate family members, he said.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Department accused CNOOC of harassing and threatening offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction in the South China Sea, \u201cwith the goal of driving up the political risk for interested foreign partners, including Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration has kept up the pressure in its final days, hitting out at what Washington sees as Beijing\u2019s bid to use corporations as a means to harness civilian technologies for military purposes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Malign purposes\u2019<\/h2>\n

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said CNOOC acted as \u201ca bully for the People\u2019s Liberation Army to intimidate China\u2019s neighbours\u201d and the Chinese military \u201ccontinues to benefit from government civil-military fusion policies for malign purposes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) is the maker of China\u2019s first homemade 158-seat narrow body jet, which is meant to rival similar models from Airbus Group and Boeing Co [File: China Daily via Reuters]<\/figure>\n

Ross\u2019s department added CNOOC to an \u201cEntity List\u201d that requires firms to be granted a special licence before they can receive exports of high-tech items from US suppliers.<\/p>\n

Chinese aviation firm Skyrizon was added to a Military End-User (MEU) List over its ability to develop military products including aircraft engines, restricting its access to US exports.<\/p>\n

Aside from Comac and Xiaomi, the Pentagon added Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc, Luokung Technology Corp, Beijing Zhongguancun Development Investment Center, GOWIN Semiconductor Corp, Grand China Air Co Ltd, Global Tone Communication Technology Co Ltd and China National Aviation Holding Co Ltd to the list.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Chinese firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday the Trump administration scrapped plans to blacklist Chinese technology giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, four people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n

Xiaomi shares fell as much as 12 percent in Hong Kong, while its suppliers also tumbled.<\/p>\n

CNOOC\u2019s listed unit, CNOOC Ltd., fell as much as 2 percent before rising 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its waning days, the administration of US President Donald Trump has taken another swipe at China and its biggest firms, imposing sanctions on officials and companies for alleged misdeeds in the South China Sea and imposing an investment ban on nine more firms. The moves will further increase tensions with China, Washington\u2019s strategic rival…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}