The U.S. State Department confirmed Friday that the United States has imposed sanctions on 10 entities for selling weapons of mass destruction components to Iran (see GSN, July 19).  Officials have sanctioned eight Chinese companies, one Chinese national and one Indian national, according to the Washington Times.

The Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act of 1992 and the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 govern the sanctions, which limit the entities’ access to U.S. technology, State spokesman Richard Boucher said (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, July 20).

All 10 entities were sanctioned under the Iran-Iraq law and eight were also sanctioned under the chemical and biological weapons control act, he said.  Sanctions imposed under the Iran-Iraq Nonproliferation Act last for two years, while the sanctions imposed under the chemical and biological weapons law are effective for one year, Boucher said (U.S. State Department release, July 19).

State notified China about the sanctions Thursday, White House officials said.  The event marks the fourth time the Bush administration has imposed sanctions on Chinese companies over proliferation concerns.  Some of the enitities penalized last week have been targeted by earlier sanctions, Boucher said.

“I would note that in some of these cases, some of these entities are already under sanctions and, therefore, the sanctions are cumulative on those entities,” he said.  “But some of these entities are new” (Gertz, Washington Times).

China Criticizes Sanctions

China today criticized the U.S. move, calling it “unreasonable.”

“China expresses its opposition and displeasure with the unreasonable sanctions by the United States,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.  China abides by international nonproliferation agreements and has a strict set of export controls, the ministry said (see GSN, June 14).

“We have consistently abided by our international obligations, made a series of corresponding laws and regulations and conducted strict controls on the export of relevant items,” it said (Reuters/New York Times, July 22).

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