MANILA, Philippines — China banned 25 more U.S. firms, the latest addition to a bourgeoning list of American defense firms barred from conducting economic activity there.
The Ministry of Commerce stated in a press release this week that the ban aims to protect the country’s “national sovereignty and security.” It effectively halts existing export activities, blocks imports, and prohibits companies from making new investments in China.
China’s response comes as President Donald Trump’s moves to increase trade tariffs against China take effect. The list was released by the commerce ministry a day ahead of President Trump’s two-hour speech to Congress in Washington on March 4.
In his speech, Trump pledged to impose “reciprocal tariffs” to take effect on April 2.
“Whatever they tariff us – other countries – we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whenever they tax us, we will tax them. If they give non-monetary barriers to keep us out of their markets, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market,” Trump said.
China’s ban list includes some 25 American firms; 10 companies are listed in the unreliable entity list while 15 are added to the export control list.
Companies in China’s expanding unreliable entity list include Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc, America’s largest military shipbuilder; S3 AeroDefense; Cubic Corporation; defense and space company ACT1 Federal; AI companies TextOre and Exovera; TCOM Limited Partnership; Stick Rudder Enterprises LLC; and Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc.
The statement also included US biotech firm Illumina Inc. which was ushered into the unreliable entity list last month.
The 15 U.S. companies in the export control list are General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Leidos, Gibbs & Cox Inc., IP Video Market Info Inc., Sourcemap Inc., Skydio Inc., Rapid Flight LLC, Red Six Solutions, Shield AI Inc., HavocAI, Neros Technologies, Group W, Aerkomm Inc., General Dynamics Land Systems, and AeroVironment.
The announcement came at the height of China’s much-awaited Two Sessions Meeting, an annual political gathering of more than 5,000 delegates to discuss key issues, including economics, foreign policy, and security.
Geopolitical watchers expected the meeting to include pronouncements on Taiwan, a rogue province China has threatened to take back by force.
In January, China hit Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and 26 other American defense and dual-use firms with an export ban after Washington’s arms sale to Taiwan.
Experts earlier warned that the tariffs could plunge China and the U.S. into a full-scale trade war. China has filed lawsuits against the additional tariffs at the World Trade Organization this week.
Before Trump’s congressional speech, China’s foreign ministry bemoaned tariffs related to fentanyl and China’s alleged inaction in countering the drug flow, an accusation the ministry said is a “flimsy excuse to raise U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.”
“Instead of recognizing our efforts, the U.S. has sought to smear and shift blame to China, and is seeking to pressure and blackmail China with tariff hikes. They’ve been punishing us for helping them,” reads a March 4 government post on X.
“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us,” the post stated. “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till (sic) the end.”
Leilani Chavez is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. Her reporting expertise is in East Asian politics, development projects, environmental issues and security.
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