Foreign and Military Affairs
China may sanction arms-selling companies with options
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-02 21:38
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The package submitted by the Pentagon to the US Congress includes Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Patriot anti-missile systems, and it will come into force if the legislature makes no objections in 30 days.
The sale has drawn criticism from China's government, top legislature and millions of Internet users. Beijing has suspended military exchanges with Washington.
"If the US side does not change the arms sale decision, China will turn the sanctions warning into action," predicted Prof. Tan Kaijia, an arms expert with the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army.
The sanctions would be a drastic countermeasure, which would compel US authorities to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the arms sale, Tan said.
Tan said all the four companies involved designed and manufactured military and civilian dual-use products and technologies, which played a vital role in the US defense industry.
According to the website of Boeing China, as of June 2009, Boeing products accounted for 53 percent of the total 1,383 civilian aircraft in China. Boeing's major rival, Airbus, accounts for 36 percent.
About 4 percent of Boeing's global revenue comes from the Chinese mainland market.
"China may penalize the companies in terms of market space," said Zhao Jinping, vice director with Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations of the State Council's Development Research Center.
Possible sanctions would include ceasing technology cooperation, delaying or canceling purchase plans for those companies' products as well as limiting their operational scope or even prohibit new businesses in the Chinese mainland, Zhao said.
He said the sanctions would probably affect the joint ventures of those arms-selling companies.
The arms sale plan, which was agreed during the administration of President George W. Bush, was announced soon after President Barack Obama's state visit to China in his first year in office.
Tan said the US announcement revealed the quite pragmatic nature of the US diplomacy, which caters for the nation's interests by all means.
"Those companies are arms dealers, some of them make fortunes by doing business with both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Economic sanctions perhaps is the best way to make them choose between arms sale profit and the Chinese market," he said.
