State Dept. Official Defends Administration Record on China Sanctions, Taiwan Arms Sales

The Biden administration is aggressively using export controls and sanctions against China, despite a lawmaker’s claims to the contrary, a State Department official told a congressional panel June 27.

The administration has taken an “unprecedented number of steps” against China, including about 700 actions by the Commerce and Treasury departments, said Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “We don’t pull our punches.”

Kritenbrink, who testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, made his comments in response to Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who asked whether the State Department has encouraged other agencies to delay imposing export controls or sanctions on China. When Kritenbrink said he could not discuss internal deliberations on such restrictions, Barr responded that Kritenbrink’s “reluctance to answer that simple question leads us to infer that the State Department has, in fact,” sought such delays.

Barr also accused the administration of providing “sanctions relief” to China and “getting nothing in return.” As an example, he cited the administration’s decision last year to remove China’s Institute of Forensic Science from the Commerce Department's Entity List to encourage China to stop producing and exporting fentanyl precursors (see 2311160003). Despite that de-listing, China continues to supply most of the world’s fentanyl precursors, Barr said, citing an April report by the House Select Committee on China (see 2404160039).

Also during the hearing, Kritenbrink defended his department’s support for Taiwan’s military modernization, saying that over the past two and a half years, it has notified Congress of 22 arms sales to Taiwan worth $6 billion.

“Our policy is one of doing everything possible to grow Taiwan’s deterrent capacity,” Kritenbrink testified.

Barr had accused the administration of “preventing Taiwan from modernizing its force to counter a Chinese invasion.” He said the administration in 2022 opposed Taiwan’s attempts to acquire certain weapons. “The more [sales], the better, in my view,” Barr said. “Let’s make Taiwan that porcupine.”

Kritenbrink said that while he did not know which specific weapons Barr was referring to, the administration has encouraged Taiwan to avoid acquiring weapons that "would not survive the first hours" of a war with China. The administration has instead urged Taiwan to focus on obtaining more survivable equipment.