US sanctions Chinese individuals involved in construction projects in South China Sea

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the Chinese companies and nationals who have taken up "illegal" construction projects in the South China Sea as part of Beijing's "expansionist agenda." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Department of Commerce has added 24 PRC state-owned enterprises to the Entity List, including several subsidiaries of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).

'These individuals will now be inadmissible into the US'

"Today, the Department of State will begin imposing visa restrictions on People's Republic of China (PRC) individuals responsible for, or complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, construction, or militarisation of disputed outposts in the South China Sea, or the PRC's use of coercion against Southeast Asian claimants to inhibit their access to offshore resources," read an official statement released by the State Department.

These individuals, Pompeo said, will now be inadmissible into the United States, and their immediate family members may be subject to these visa restrictions as well.

'The CCCC have engaged in corruption'

Pompeo said that since 2013 China has used its state-owned enterprises to dredge and reclaim more than 3,000 acres on disputed features of the South China Sea, destabilising the region, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbouring countries, and causing untold environmental devastation.

The CCCC has led the destructive dredging of China's South China Sea outposts and is also one of the leading contractors used by Beijing in its global "One Belt One Road" strategy, he said. "The CCCC and its subsidiaries have engaged in corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses across the world," Pompeo said.

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Despite protests from the United States and other countries, the Chinese government has been rapidly building the artificial islands since 2013, enabling the Communist Chinese Party's (CCP) militarisation of disputed outposts in the South China Sea to undermine the sovereign rights of US partners in the region, the department said.

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China claims sovereignty over most parts of the resource-rich South China Sea, rejecting counterclaims of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The US and Chinese diplomatic relations have spiralled after the coronavirus outbreak, with President Donald Trump saying Beijing could have done more to restrict the virus from spreading globally.

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In recent months, the US has stepped up its naval presence in the South China Sea, vowing to protect navigation freedom and rejecting China's claims over sovereignty.

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(With agency inputs)