The Trump administration had already rejected Chinese claims in the South China Sea in July in a formal statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said “The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire.”
Secretary Pompeo has heavily criticized Beijing’s expansion efforts throughout Asia, claiming that China’s policy of “might makes right” is essentially a billy club, used as a coercive tool to bend nations to the will of Beijing.
This criticism implicates Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative, which has come under fire from U.S. officials for being nothing more than a coercive enterprise to gain sway over at-risk developing nations.
Chinese Communications Construction Co.
Out of the 24 sanctioned companies, five of them are subsidiaries of the CCCC. Assistant Secretary State of David Stilwell has called China’s actions in Southeast Asia “modern-day equivalents of the East India Company.”
The CCCC in particular has been targeted by U.S. officials, one senior official has described the company as “the Huawei of infrastructure,” a direct reference to China’s massive telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co.
