Following NATO’s condemnation of Beijing’s support of the Soviet defense field on July 11, United States leaders, politicians, and non-profit businesses have called for sanctions on Hong Kong businesses and banks.  ,
During a conference with Wang Yi, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken plans to lodge a complaint about Russian supplies, with him in Laos. He claimed last week that Russia imports 90 % of its nanotechnology and 70 % of its system tools from China.  ,
Separately, Republican US Senator Marco Rubio proposed a change to the National Defense Authorization Act that would give the president the authority to impose sanctions on economic institutions that deal with illegally Russian supplies.  ,
Two US information media sources and an activist group have released their analyses over the past few weeks that look at the level of transshipments of products from the typical high priority list ( CHPL) to Russia.  ,
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to the New York Times, it has reportedly received about US$ 4 billion in limited chips. It claimed that a number of shell corporations in Hong Kong assisted in the shipment of many of these items to Moscow. According to the report, the number was derived from an analysis of Russian norms data since the middle of 2021.  ,
The paper said the cards were sent to Russia in almost 800, 000 supplies by more than 6, 000 businesses. The sixth floor of the Hong Kong company’s sixth floor, located at 135 Bonham Strand in Central, was visited by New York Times staff, who was reportedly involved in the transshipments, but they were unable to meet anyone.  ,  ,
Between August and December 2023, 206 Hong Kong companies, known as consignors, have shipped US$ 750 million of CHPL items to Russia, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation ( CFHK Foundation ), a non-profit organization based in Washington, said in a report on July 22.
These things include data receivers, system chips and controllers, digital storage and input/output models and various integrated circuits. Other things include dynamic converters, amplifiers, memory cards and diodes.  ,
They were made by 31 American companies, including Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Microchip Technology, Apple, Intel, Dell and Nvidia.
The CFHK Foundation said it used data collected by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies ( C4ADS ), another Washington-based non-profit organization.  ,
It recommended that the US use its secondary sanctions authority to designate Hong Kong and Chinese banks as primary money laundering concerns ( PMLC ) and to designate Hong Kong as a primary money laundering concern ( PMLC ).  ,
However, an unknown US Commerce Department official was cited as saying in a document on July 22 that the volume of CHPL products shipped through Hong Kong had decreased by 28 % between January and May.  ,
The official claimed that the government’s extreme law enforcement and product supplier wedding contributed to the decrease, but did not explain how it was calculated. However, the standard claimed that Hong Kong is still a haven for Russians to escape international sanctions.
For the same time, transshipments of CHPL things through mainland China, excluding Hong Kong, fell 19 %. The US Commerce Department stated that it wanted to restrict access to the data because it could not get it in its entirety.  ,
All these new figures were made after NATO leaders called China a “decisive facilitator” of Russia’s war against Ukraine in a mutual declaration on July 11. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated on July 19 that the US is preparing to impose fresh sanctions against Chinese companies that provided dual-use goods to Russia’s Ukrainian military.  ,
Rubio’s act
Rubio updated the National Defense Authorization Act on July 11th.
He proposed that the US President have the power to impose sanctions on any” covered financial institution” that uses China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System ( CIPS), Russia’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages ( SPFS ) or Iran’s System for Electronic Payment Messaging ( SEPAM ) to clear, verify, settle or conduct transactions with any other” covered financial institution”.
A” covered financial institution” means one located in or organized under the laws of one of the countries of concern, which include China ( including Hong Kong and Macau ), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.  ,
By the end of this year, the US Congress is anticipated to make a choice regarding NDAA modifications for 2025.  ,
Rubio had introduced the Crippling Deranged Russian Belligerence and Chinese Presence in Putin’s Schemes Act in March 2022. There have n’t been any updates on it.
As of last fortnight, CIPS has 148 clear members, including Citibank, and 1, 396 indirect individuals around the world.  ,  ,
Moscow’s methods
According to a report released on June 18 by C4ADS,” War Machine– The Networks Supplying &, Sustaining the Russian Precision Machine Tool Arsenal,” China, Hong Kong, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates are among the nations in concern with the supply of computer numeric control ( CNC ) machine tools for Russia.
According to the report, Russia has historically obtained foreign-produced CNC machine tools ( FPCMTs ) from nations whose governments now support Kyiv.  ,
Wang Wenbin, a former Chinese ambassador to Cambodia and a former official of the Chinese foreign ministry, claimed on April 23 that the US is dishonest and reckless because it continues to make excuses about regular business and economic relations between China and Russia while providing significant assistance to Ukraine.  ,
Some experts claimed that the new US sanctions will only raise foreign exchange transaction costs to finance Russian purchases relating to the war, but they wo n’t stop them.  ,
They claimed that while large Chinese banks have stopped financing industry with Russia to evade US sanctions, smaller banks may continue because they do not have multi-dollar businesses. They said different states such as Kazakhstan and Armenia, rather of Hong Kong, can even handle Russian supplies.  ,  ,
Read: US warns Chinese institutions over Russian supplies
Observe Jeff Pao on X:  , @jeffpao3