US punishes Chinese military for buying Russian fighter jets
News & Trends •
a federal special counsel is leading a criminal investigation of russian interference in the u.s. election and any possible cooperation with trumps presidential campaign1 the trump administration has imposed sanctions on the chinese military for buying fighter jets and missile systems from russia in breach of a sweeping u.s. sanctions law punishing moscow for meddling in the 2016 u.s. election1 the u.s. state department said it would immediately impose sanctions on chinas equipment development department edd the branch of the chinese military responsible for weapons and equipment and its director li shangfu for engaging in significant transactions with rosoboronexport russias main arms exporter1 the sanctions are related to chinas purchase of 10 su-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and s-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018 the state department said1 they block the chinese agency and li from applying for export licenses and participating in the u.s. financial system1 it also adds them to the treasury departments list of specially designated individuals with whom americans are barred from doing business1 the administration also blacklisted an additional 33 people and entities associated with the russian military and intelligence adding them to a list under the 2017 law known as the countering americas adversaries through sanctions act or caatsa1 caatsa also seeks to punish russia for its aggression in ukraine and involvement in syrias civil war1 doing significant business with anyone on that list can trigger sanctions like those imposed on china1 some of those added to the list which now contains 72 names were indicted in connection with russian interference in the 2016 u.s. election the official said1 earlier on thursday president donald trump issued an executive order intended to facilitate implementation of the sanctions1 chinas foreign ministry has strongly urged the united states to withdraw the sanctions according to spokesman geng shuang at a daily news briefing in beijing1 trump has insisted there was no collusion with russia. moscow denies any effort to meddle in u.s. politics1 one u.s. administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said the sanctions imposed on the chinese agency were aimed at moscow not beijing or its military despite an escalating trade war between the united states and china1 the ultimate target of these sanctions is russia. caatsa sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country the official told reporters on a conference call1 they are instead aimed at imposing costs upon russia in response to its malign activities the official said1 in moscow russian member of parliament franz klintsevich said the sanctions would not affect the s-400 and su-35 contracts1 i am sure that these contracts will be executed in line with the schedule klintsevich was quoted as saying by russias interfax news agency. the possession of this military equipment is very important for china1 security analysts in asia said the move appeared to be largely symbolic and would serve only to push moscow and beijing closer together1 the imposition of u.s. sanctions will have zero impact on russian arms sales to china said ian storey of singapores iseas yusof ishak institute1 both countries are opposed to what they see as u.s. bullying and this kind of actions will just push beijing and moscow even closer together he said adding that moscow needed chinese money and beijing wanted advanced military technology1 collin koh a security analyst at singapores s rajaratnam school of international studies said the sanctions would do little to counter the evolving research and development relationship between china and russia1