US bans on China ‘won’t dent arms deals with Russia’
But Washington’s sanctions could deter some of Moscow’s other military clients more vulnerable to American pressure, analyst says
US sanctions on a key Chinese defence unit are meant to deter other buyers of Moscow’s military equipment, but are unlikely to affect China’s arms deals with Russia or in the international market, analysts said.
In the depths of a trade war with Beijing, Washington announced on Thursday that it would invoke a new sanctions law against the Chinese defence ministry’s Equipment Development Department (EDD) and the department’s director Li Shangfu for buying Russian fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles.
Under the sanctions, the EDD – which oversees China’s defensive acquisitions abroad – is banned from foreign exchange transactions within the United States and its financial system and will be denied export licences.
Beijing strongly protested against the move on Friday, and Moscow said Washington’s decision was “playing with fire”.
While the US State Department said the sanctions were aimed mainly at Russia for its “malign activities”, including its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the EDD is the first entity to be targeted under Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017.