The US firms China is targetingpublished at 10:44 Greenwich Mean Time
Image source, Getty ImagesA platoon of M1 Abrahams battle tanks, manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems
Earlier, we reported that Beijing had targeted several US firms in aviation, tech and defence, aside from announcing retaliatory tariffs against some agriculture goods as well.
Let’s take a look at what these firms do.
For one, Beijing has barred 15 US companies from buying dual-use materials or tech from China – dual-use because they can be used for both civilian and military manufacturing.
Some of these firms make military equipment – such as General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), which designs and produces military vehicles, including battle tanks for the US and South Korea and Shield AI, a Silicon Valley-based defence start-up which makes AI software for unmanned aircraft and drones.
Additionally, it has also added 10 firms to the “unreliable entity” list, which means they cannot trade with China, or invest in the country. These include Huntington Ingalls Industries, America’s largest military shipbuilding company and TextOre, whichspecialises in analysing open-source intelligence for the defence and intelligence operations.
In some cases, the retaliation may well be symbolic because it is unclear how much these firms import from China – therefore, it’s hard to say how exactly they will be impacted.
