China Criticizes US Report Calling for Chinese Sanctions, Export Controls

China’s Foreign Ministry criticized a report released this week by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that called for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials, saying the commission has no “objectivity or credibility whatsoever.” The report, issued Jan. 8, also called for greater U.S. export controls on surveillance technologies being sent to China and urged the Trump administration to place more Chinese companies and agencies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List due to their involvement in human rights violations (see 2001080039).

During a Jan. 9 press conference, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the commission has a “distorted perspective” and levied “groundless” accusations. He also said the U.S. should “stop smearing China or jeopardizing mutual trust and cooperation through their words and deeds.”

The spokesman also said the U.S. should “cool off tensions” in the Middle East rather than impose additional sanctions on Iran, which Trump announced Jan. 8 (see 2001080030). “In state-to-state relations, all countries should earnestly observe the purposes and principles of the [United Nations] Charter and the basic norms governing international relations,” the spokesman said.