Chinese officials have summoned United States ambassador Terry Branstad in Beijing to reportedly denounce the US for imposing economic sanctions on a Chinese military organization for buying equipment from Russia.
In a statement, Chinese Defence Ministry said that would recall the navy chief Shen Jinlong from a visit to the United States and the talks between Chinese and U.S. military officials will be postponed.
The moves were aim to protest against the sanctions and pressurize The US government to withdraw it. According to the state news agency Xinhua, Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said that the sanctions are ‘a flagrant breach of basic rules of international relations’ and ‘a stark show of hegemonism.’
The US State Department, on Thursday, imposed sanctions on China’s Equipment Development Department (EED), the branch of the military responsible for weapons procurement, after their engagement with Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms exporter.
The transactions involved the purchase of Russian Su-35 combat aircraft and equipment related to the S-400 surface-to-air missile system, the State Department said.
In December 2017, the Chinese received the aircraft and an initial batch of the missile equipment in 2018. Both were the as the result of deals negotiated before August 2017 between the Chinese military organization and Rosoboronexport, the State Department said.
After President Trump announced tariffs of an additional $200 billion worth of goods from China, the tensions between the United States and China have escalated. And this move has further strained the relations between the two.