Opinion

China’s anti-sanctions law is a defence mechanism, not an attack weapon

Name: China passes anti-sanctions law to counter punitive action by foreign countries
Uploaded: 2021-06-14T09:28:44.000Z
Duration: 2 min 23 s
Description: China passes anti-sanctions law to counter punitive action by foreign countries

Legislation rushed through last week reflects Beijing’s growing confidence it could follow through against foreign bodies with tit-for-tat sanctions

Zhuhai Zhenrong is a cautionary tale of how few Chinese businesses, including state-owned enterprises, can afford to be sanctioned

2-MIN READ2-MIN

China’s top legislative body passed an anti-sanctions law, providing legal backing for sweeping retaliation against any individuals, their families and organisations responsible for imposing foreign sanctions against the country. Photo: Xinhua

Zhou Xin

Zhou Xin is Tech Editor of the Post, following stints as Political Economy Editor and Deputy China Editor.

Published: 5:28pm, 14 Jun 2021Updated: 8:40am, 15 Jun 2021

The new anti-sanctions law rushed through by China’s lawmakers last week is Beijing’s latest attempt to defend itself against a perceived new wave of hostility against Chinese individuals and institutions.

Beijing foresees Chinese companies and individuals at growing risk of being sanctioned by foreign governments in coming years over their involvement in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

As such, the Chinese government needed to beef up its legal defence against such threats. It is essentially a defensive move and a warning to foreign authorities: if you sanction Chinese businesses and individuals, China has the legal basis and means to hit back.

The law also reflects Beijing’s growing confidence that it is capable – at least in some specific cases – of conducting tit-for-tat sanction exchanges.

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China passes anti-sanctions law to counter punitive action by foreign countries

China has a successful track record of pushing big, powerful foreign companies to follow Chinese laws and regulations, using the access to China’s huge domestic market as a bargaining chip.

Using the same method, some foreign businesses, after seeing a clear risk of being sanctioned by the Chinese government, may lobby their home governments to drop sanction plans against Chinese businesses.

The real implementation of the law, however, is expected to be highly selective.

China’s Ministry of Commerce, for instance, has threatened to put foreign businesses on an “unreliable entity list”, a sanction list copied from the US entity list, but the Chinese authority has not included any foreign businesses on it yet.