Revoke sanctions or pay the price, furious China tells US

Beijing, September 21

An “outraged” China on Friday lodged a diplomatic protest with the US for imposing punitive sanctions on its military unit for buying Russian weapons, warning of “consequences” if the sanctions are not revoked. 

The US State Department said on Thursday that the purchases of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles by China’s Equipment Development Department (EDD) of China’s Ministry of Defence violated US sanctions on Russia. Both the EDD and its director, Li Shangfu, have been named in Thursday’s sanctions. It is the first time the Trump administration targeted a third country with its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 (CAATSA), designed to punish Russia for its seizure of Crimea and other activities.

Reacting to the US move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “China is strongly outraged by this unreasonable action of the US and lodged stern representations.”

“What the US has done gravely violated the basis norms governing the international relations and harmed the state-to-state and military-to-military relations between the two sides,” he said. Asked whether China would continue its close intelligence and defence cooperation with Russia, Geng said, “China and Russia are comprehensive strategic partners of coordination. We have been having normal exchanges of cooperation on the basis of equality, mutual trust and mutual benefit in various fields, including national defence”.

The China-Russia defence cooperation is meant to safeguard the two nations’ legitimate interests and regional peace and stability,” he said. 

It targets no third country and violates no international law, he added. “We will work with Russia to implement the consensus reached by two leaders and move forward our strategic coordination,” he said, referring to the close ties between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Founded in 2016 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the EDD was tasked with overseeing and improving the country’s military technology. It is regarded as a key part of China’s Central Military Commission, overall high command of Chinese military headed by Xi. Sanctions will deny EDD any foreign export licences, prohibit it from making foreign transactions within US jurisdiction. — PTI

Trade Titans take to tit-for-tat tariff

America and China, which has no access to the US and European Union military equipments, will launch new penalties beginning Monday

$200 bn worth of Chinese exports that US will be targeting 

$60 bn worth of American products that Beijing plans to target

What China has bought from Russia

• Besides Su-35s and S-400 missiles, $15 billion worth of weapons in 2017— almost similar level of sales in 2016
• 10 Su-35 combat aircraft in Dec 2017— China became first foreign country to purchase Russia’s upgrade to its Su-27
• 8 Kamov Ka-32A11VS multi-role helicopters; the contract included training for Chinese pilots
• China, relying on technology for its military modernisation, had in recent years stepped up military ties with Russia

‘US won’t back down’ 

Donald Trump, US President, will not back down from the trade war with China and make it “unbearably painful” for Beijing, Trump’s aide Steve Bannon said on Friday 

‘Shoulder consequences’

Xi Jinping, China President,  govt’s spokesman said, “We strongly urge the US side to address this mistake otherwise it will need to shoulder all possible consequences”