China

China imposes sanctions on Pompeo, other Trump admin officials

Published

3 years ago

January 20, 2021

The Chinese government on Wednesday slapped fresh sanctions on outgoing Secretary of State Mike P ompeo and 27 other officials from now-former President Donald Trump‘s administration.

These sanctions come after Pompeo announced Saturday that restrictions on U.S. diplomatic channels with Taiwan—officially known as the Republic of China—will be lifted. Since the end of its intermittent, decades-long civil war in 1949, communist mainland China—officially the People’s Republic of China—has claimed sovereignty over the island nation.

In response to this move by Pompeo, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday that it would impose sanctions on U.S. officials who have engaged in “nasty behaviour” regarding Taiwan, Reuters reported.

“Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations,” the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in its statement, per CNBC.

“China has decided to sanction 28 persons who have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and who have been mainly responsible for such U.S. moves on China-related issues,” the statement also said.

Other notable officials hit with these sanctions are former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, and former trade adviser Peter Navarro.

This list of significant Trump administration officials that were sanctioned Wednesday extends to former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft, former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, and under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach.

“These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in its statement. “They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China.”

These sanctions were also imposed the day after Pompeo issued a scathing declaration accusing China of committing “genocide” against Uighur Muslims in its northwestern Xinjiang region. In its Wednesday statement, the Ministry called him a “doomsday clown” and said Pompeo labeling China and its ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as a perpetrator of genocide and crimes against humanity was merely “a piece of wastepaper,” according to the Associated Press.

President Joe Biden has nominated his longtime foreign policy advisor Antony Blinken to serve as his secretary of state. Blinken is currently going through confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate. In the meantime, Biden has chosen career diplomat David Smith to serve as acting secretary of state until Blinken is confirmed by the Senate, which is generally expected to happen.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

China

Electric Vehicle company with Chinese ties awarded $500 million of taxpayer money for 2nd U.S. plant

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

With a little help from their Democrat friends, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party just announced the opening of its second plant in the United States.

Fox News reports Gotion Inc., whose parent company Gotion High-Tech is based in Hefei, China, unveiled plans to build a $2 billion lithium battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, alongside Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who cheered the project.

The announcement comes amid growing opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar factory in Mecosta County, Michigan.

In order to make the expansion happen, lobbyists for the Chinese Communist Party-tied electric vehicle company funneled cash to Democrats. “Individuals at a law firm registered as foreign agents to lobby on behalf of Gotion, a Chinese electric vehicle battery company developing a controversial project in Michigan, and wired campaign contributions to several top Democrats” reports Fox News.

“According to state and federal filings, Monique Field-Foster, an attorney at the Lansing office of the Warner Norcross + Judd law firm who is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Gotion, donated to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s sister Liz Gereghty and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Elissa Slotkin” the Fox News report continued.

“With the right incentives, nation-leading infrastructure, world-class workforce and booming clean energy production, we have transformed ourselves into an attractive location for global manufacturers. Today, we take another leap forward. It’s my pleasure to welcome Gotion to Illinois and to show the world yet again that Illinois is ready to be a player on the world stage.”

Pritzker delivered remarks late last week thanking Gotion for choosing Illinois to call “home” in a ceremony with leaders from Gotion High-Tech, including Li Zhen, the company’s chairman and president, who said he expected the factory to open in less than 12 months.

“All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years,” the Gotion president added. “We believe that Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the U.S.”