Lawmaker Slams ‘Astonishingly Weak’ Response to Chinese Firms’ Support of Russian Military

Representative Michael McCaul (R., Texas) hit the Biden administration for failing to respond forcefully to five Chinese firms’ evasion of sanctions targeting Russia’s war effort. His criticism follows the Commerce Department’s announcement yesterday that the firms are supplying Russia’s military–industrial base.

Commerce placed the five companies, which sell electronic components, on the entity list, meaning that U.S. firms are prohibited from exporting to them. McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ripped into the administration for declining to go further than that.

“Deputy Secretary Sherman promised ‘consequences’ if the CCP provided ‘material support’ to Russia, but the administration’s feeble concept of ‘consequences’ will do little to deter the CCP’s ongoing support for Putin’s war crimes,” he said, citing Sherman’s comments during a hearing in April.

In his statement today, McCaul said the administration should have imposed financial sanctions to block those companies from doing any international business.

“Providing ‘continued support of Russia’s military efforts’ should result in significant sanctions on those offending companies,” said McCaul, adding that the administration’s response, “is astonishingly weak, and could further the threat Russia poses to Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.”

Although the Commerce Department said the designated firms are supplying Russian “entities of concern,” it did not make a determination as to whether the Chinese government is facilitating their sanctions-evasion activity. Last month, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the U.S. has not identified “systematic” Chinese efforts to blow through the West’s sanctions and export controls targeting the Russian defense industry.