EU to hit Chinese firms with sanctions for Russian support in Ukraine

The new measures, which have been laid out in a first draft by REL, are part of the 15th package of newly proposed sanctions from Brussels, which also aim to hit six companies in China with asset freezes and a Chinese citizen with a visa ban.

While the EU in the past has imposed sanctions on Chinese companies as part of Brussels' efforts to fight evasion, those measures have to do with bans that prevented EU companies from co-operating with those firms.

But the new proposal implies that this is the first time the EU intends to black-list Chinese companies or individuals with asset freezes and regimes, visas because they are helping Russia secure goods for civilian and military use, which can be used in the battlefield.

If approved, these measures would prevent individuals associated with those companies from joining the EU and would freeze each firm in the EU.

These sanctions were proposed after Russia managed to avoid the impact of powerful EU and US sanctions, which are intended to destroy its military-industrial complex by providing vital goods, as microprocessors, through third friendly states or even directly from them.

China, in particular, has played a crucial role in strengthening Russia's economy since it began the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Western officials have said help from China to avoid sanctions has had a major impact on Moscow's support in the battlefield.

The only Chinese individual proposed for the visa ban is a Chinese “businessmen”, which represents a firm engaged in China and Hong Kong, says in the draft document.

The firm represented by him is charged with having <x0 violated the bans on avoiding the EU's restrictive regime imposed on the Russian Federation,”, including companies that are part of Russia's military-industrial complex.

The proposed document contains a total of 54 people for visa bans and 29 asset freezing entities, most of whom are based in Russia and are Russian citizens.

Among the six Chinese or Hong Kong-based firms proposed for freezing assets, one of them is owned by a Russian citizen.

This company, said in the draft of the document, “has been the biggest supplier of micro-sanctioned components for Russian companies since the beginning of the fight against Ukraine, which are used for production of Orlan drones used by the Russian Army in Ukraine”.

In addition to freezing assets and stopping visas, the new package also aims to hit 33 mainly Russian-based companies that are under export restrictions, but includes firms based in China, Iran, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

The document also ranks 44 subjects as part of an effort to sanction the so-called “Russia's”, a term referring to ships involved in illegal operations for the purposes of avoiding sanctions.

The draft version of the sanctions package was split for the first time with EU countries on 22 November and must be approved by all 27 member states to enter into force. /rel