- WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Economic
sanctions have been imposed on the Chinese government and a state-run Chinese
firm for allegedly selling advanced missile technology to an unnamed country.
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- 'These are the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed
on China,' a US State Department official told The Washington Times yesterday,
adding they could cost China 'billions' of dollars in lost sales.
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- The measures include a two-year ban on all US export
licences and new US government contracts for 'all activities of the Chinese
government relating to the development or production of missile equipment
or technology and...affecting the development or production of electronics,
space systems or equipment and military aircraft'.
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- A two-year ban on the import into the United States
of Chinese products related to those activities was waived until next year,
suggesting that Washington had an existing contract with Beijing that it
wanted fulfilled.
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- A determination was made that it was essential to the
national security of the US 'to waive the import sanction for a period
of one year from the date of publication of this notice', the spokesman
said on condition of anonymity.
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- No details of the missile-related sale were given, neither
was the buyer identified.
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- But the company in question, China North Industries
Incorporated (Norinco), had been penalised by the US as recently as last
July for similar sales to Iran.
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- Some of last Friday's sanctions also applied to the
Chinese government, the US State Department said in a notice published
in the Federal Register.
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- Norinco, already subject to myriad US sanctions, faced
an extension of those penalties, including bans on licences to acquire
US equipment and technology and a bar on US government contracts.
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- It will also not be allowed to export products to the
US for two years.
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- The spokesman said the sanctions were aimed at a company
US officials had labelled a 'serial proliferator' and that China's government
refused to rein in.
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- China had vehemently protested against other US sanctions
in the past and the companies involved in those had denied any wrongdoing.
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- On July 5, a day after Washington slapped sanctions
on Norinco as well as four other Chinese firms and a North Korean missile
company supplying Iran, Beijing reacted angrily.
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- 'It is not reasonable at all that the United States
forces its national policy and laws on others, putting sanctions against
enterprises of other countries,' the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a
statement.
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- It also said that China controlled its weapons trade
and supported non-proliferation efforts.
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- Norinco is a key supplier of China's People's Liberation
Army. It also sells hunting rifles and other firearms to the US.
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- The firm has a registered capital of about US$30 billion
(S$52.3 billion), is involved in more than 100 joint ventures around the
world and sells high-technology products, chemicals and construction machinery.
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