On July 30, the EU imposed sanctions on 14 Chinese companies, supposedly for “supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine.” But an article posted in the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong notes that “few of the names were recognizable to anyone outside narrow trading and compliance circles.” They add: “Officials were taken aback less than 24 hours later, when Beijing—which had been notified of the ragtag group of traders and freight forwarders to be listed by the EU as far back as June—fired back. Unlike the long notice afforded to their own diplomats, China gave Brussels just a one-hour warning, according to people familiar with the exchange.” They note that China “went for the jugular.”
The sanctions prevent the companies from buying named goods from China. The list includes 14 defense companies, including Europe’s largest defense producer, Germany’s Rheinmetall. South China Morning Post adds: “The firms named are also effectively cut off from receiving those same Chinese-origin materials via overseas suppliers, an extraterritorial reach that does not exist in the EU’s own measures, and which could send a chilling effect through their supply chains, Brussels officials fear.”
