China may sanction arms-selling US companies
- Source: Xinhua
- [20:44 February 02 2010]
- Comments
US companies involved in a major arms sale to Taiwan have remained silent or given evasive comments on China's sanction warning, but military and trade experts said on Tuesday that the government holds many options to penalize the arms-selling companies.
Beijing has given an unprecedented sanctions warning to companies involved in the 6.4-billion.US-dollar arms deal, which the Obama administration announced on Friday.
The potential targets of sanctions include US defense contractors Boeing, Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Wang Yukui, vice president of communications of Boeing China Co., Ltd., refused to respond to a flood of public criticism of the company on China's Internet forums.
Instead, he said on Monday in a interview with Xinhua that the arms sale plan was made by US government, which informed his company of the plan after its announcement.
Wang said China had been a very important market for Boeing and the company's local business, mainly civilian aviation, had been doing quite well.
Boeing's US headquarters has not published any direct response to the sanctions warning, but predicted that its operating revenue in 2010 would decline.
Raytheon has no office in Beijing, but has a consultant company in Shanghai dealing training programs for auto makers in China.
Staff with the consultant company refused to comment on the warning, saying the company had informed its US headquarters, but received no response yet.
Lockheed Martin has no office in Beijing, but has a joint venture Beijing Metstar Radar Co. Ltd. Calls to the joint venture went unanswered.
Sikorsky and its parent firm, United Technologies Corp., have more than 40 joint and exclusive ventures in the mainland, dealing civilian aircraft engines, helicopters, air conditioning facilities and elevators.
Calls to Shanghai Sikorsky Aircraft Company remained unanswered till Tuesday and the United Technologies' public relations staff in Beijing failed to give any comment on the sanctions warning, but promised to ask senior staff to reply.
The package submitted by the Pentagon to the US Congress includes Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Patriot anti-missile systems, and it will come into force if the legislature makes no objections in 30 days.
