China curbs US arms makers for selling to Taiwan

China added three American defense contractors to its Unreliable Entity List on Monday, the day of Taiwan’s presidential inauguration, and accused them of having sold arms to the island.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced its decision to sanction three United States firms, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

It said the three firms are banned from further investment in China while their senior executives cannot enter or stay in the country.

It also ordered Boeing Defense, Space & Security to pay a fine equivalent to two times of what it received from its arms sale to Taiwan. The company’s President Ted Colbert was sanctioned by China in 2022 after it won a US$355 million contract to supply Harpoon missiles to Taiwan.

In fact, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems already had their mainland assets frozen by the Chinese authorities on April 11 due to their weapon deals with Taiwan.

In March this year, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems won a contract worth US$250 million to supply MQ-9B SkyGuardian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Taiwan.

In 2019, Taiwan asked to buy 108 units of M1A2T Abrams tanks from General Dynamics Land Systems. The first batch of 38 tanks will be delivered this year.

Caplugs slapped

Also on Monday, the Ministry of Commerce urged a unit of Caplugs, a New York-based protective cap maker, to stop supplying products to those on China’s Unreliable Entity List, such as Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Missiles & Defense.

“Evidence indicates that Caplugs has bypassed Chinese sanctions by transferring goods purchased from China to companies already listed on the unreliable entities list,” it