China sanctions US entities and tightens drone export controls as trade war escalates

China’s Ministry of Commerce just fired another shot in the world’s most consequential trade dispute. On August 5, Beijing announced sanctions against seven US entities and imposed stricter export controls on drones and dual-use technologies headed to America, a direct response to Washington’s recent expansion of sanctions tied to Xinjiang. What China actually did Beijing’s countermeasures hit on multiple fronts. Seven US entities are now barred from conducting business with Chinese organizations. The list includes Compliance Testing LLC, Applied DNA Sciences, Stratum Reservoir, Altana Technologies, the Responsible Business Alliance, Verité Group, and Human Rights in China. Several of these are compliance, auditing, and testing firms, the kind of organizations that help US companies verify their supply chains aren’t tangled up in forced labor. Sanctioning them is a pointed message: stop helping enforce US human rights rules on Chinese soil. On the drone front, exports of drones and related dual-use technologies to the US now require case-by-case licensing reviews under China’s Export Control Law. Every shipment gets individually scrutinized before it leaves the country. That’s not ...