Sanctions on Russia-related trade unwarranted, high- and heavy-handed

This is an editorial from China Daily.

It is only natural that those countries whose targeted entities have been conducting normal business with Russia according to international law should vent their spleen at the US' long-arm jurisdiction, as it impedes normal international economic and trade exchanges, and harms the stability of the global industry and supply chains.

The United States Treasury Department announced sweeping sanctions on hundreds of entities in Russia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East on Friday, accusing them of providing products and services that enable Russia "to sustain its war effort and evade sanctions". Among them are some companies and individuals from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, with the US Department of State saying it was concerned by "the magnitude of dual-use goods" being exported from China to Russia.

The move bars the sanctioned entities that are mainly supplying machine tools and components to Russian companies from trading with US companies without gaining a special license that is practically unobtainable.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry is fully justified in expressing Beijing's anger and opposition to the US move, as it is an unwarranted unilateral action that undermines the international trade order and undercuts international efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis in peace. It said that it will adopt necessary measures to safeguard the rights and interests of the country's businesses.

While it frequently claims to champion "the rules-based order", the US has repeatedly been the country that has run roughshod over it. The Ukraine crisis is only an excuse the US has used to expand its sanctions regime.

Since the conflict in Ukraine began, the US has pushed its long-practiced economic coercion to the extreme, slapping thousands of sanctions on Russian companies and financial institutions, with no regard to their legitimacy or their broader effects.

At the same time, it has increasingly found fault with other countries for maintaining normal trade ties with Russia and used this as the justification for casting its net and wielding its sanctions baton against numerous foreign companies and individuals that have normal business ties with Russia. As it has pulled its net in more and more aggressively, a growing number of Chinese companies and individuals have fallen victim to it.

The fact that the Ukraine conflict has become a long-running crisis shows sanctions cannot resolve it, a truth that has been proved before. Not to mention that the US' long-arm jurisdiction has sabotaged international relations and stoked tensions and confrontation in the world arena.

The US sanctions regime, like its repeated actions to supply ammunition to Ukraine, is tantamount to fanning the flames of the conflict in Ukraine. What the US has done has only proved true the speculation that Washington does not want the Ukraine war to end any time soon as it intends to fish for more strategic and economic gains from it.

With the latest China-related sanctions being announced just a few days before US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's visit to Beijing, the possibility cannot be ruled out that Washington is collecting some bargaining chips ahead of the discussions. Or, more probably, it shows the US has little sincerity in building mutual trust and is ratcheting up the tensions with China, instead of making the badly needed sincere efforts required to repair the world's most important pair of nation-to-nation ties.