NYTimes: China has promised to punish US sanctions for arms supplies to Taiwan

China has promised to impose sanctions against American companies that are going to sell Taiwan arms worth more than $2 billion, writes The New York Times.

This step, as the newspaper notes, can provoke even greater tension in relations between the two major powers at the same time when the governments of both countries impose duties against each other.

Beijing threatened to use similar measures against Washington after the last sale of arms to Taiwan — an island that is not controlled by the Chinese authorities, but China considers it its territory. However, then the promised sanctions have not been implemented, the newspaper notes.

"The sale of arms by the United States is a serious violation of international law and norms governing international relations," Chinese foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang commented on the situation.

Further retaliatory steps of China or the lack of such will be a signal of Beijing's readiness to inflict a painful blow on American companies against the background of the second year of the trade war with Washington, the newspaper notes.

The United States supplies arms to Taiwan, in accordance with the requirements of the American law, adopted in 1979 in order to ensure the security of the island. And the document was approved against the background of warming relations between Washington and Beijing. China has long been considering a similar delivery as an insulting attack on its sovereignty.

As stressed by The New York Times, any sanctions by Beijing will not affect the arms business of us defense contractors, because after the "massacre at Tiananmen square in 1989," American companies were forbidden to sell weapons to mainland China.

However, restrictive measures may affect non-military products of the same enterprises. For example, the company General Dynamics produces not only combat vehicles and submarines, but also private Gulfstream aircraft, which are very popular with the Chinese rich.