Beijing sanctions U.S. firms on Taiwan arms sales

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning announced on Friday sanctions on two companies in the United States involved in Washington's constant arms sales to the Taiwan region, in a resolute move to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The first company, Lockheed Martin, St. Louis, MO, was directly involved as the principal contractor in the U.S. government's $500 million worth of arms sales to Taiwan on Aug 24. The second is Northrop Grumman, which has been frequently engaged in Washington's sales of arms to Taiwan, she said.

"China has decided to impose sanctions on these two above-mentioned U.S. defense corporations in accordance with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law of the People's Republic of China," Mao said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Recently, the U.S. has been providing advanced weaponry to Taiwan through different ways such as arms sales, military assistance and loans.

Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration approved the first-ever U.S. military transfer worth $80 million to Taiwan under a program for sovereign states, eliciting strong dissatisfaction and opposition from Beijing.

The spokeswoman said the U.S.' deliberate supplies of weapons to the Taiwan region, in disregard of the Chinese side's firm opposition, seriously violated the one-China principle and stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques.

As such sales have severely undermined China's sovereignty and security interests, the U.S. is going further down the wrong and dangerous path of arming Taiwan, Mao added.

"We urge the U.S. side to … stop arms sales to and military collusion with the Taiwan region and stop arming Taiwan. Otherwise, it will be met with China's resolute response," Mao said.

Also at the news briefing, the spokeswoman announced that China's Vice-President Han Zheng will attend the general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly from Monday to Sept 23.

Han will also attend the UN SDG Summit, Climate Ambition Summit and the high-level meeting on Global Development Initiative Cooperation Outcomes hosted by China.

In addition, he will conduct bilateral meetings with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Dennis Francis, president of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, and leaders from relevant countries, Mao said.

"The vice-president will fully elaborate on China's views and propositions on the current international landscape, global governance and major international and regional issues, and will call for global efforts to uphold true multilateralism," she said.