China has announced new export controls on over two dozen U.S. companies, but experts told Newsweek that the decision largely appears to be either for show or an effort to stack up bargaining chips ahead of the second Trump administration. Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team and the White House by email on Friday afternoon for comment. President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his plans to implement aggressive measures against China after he takes office on January 20.
One such plan that he repeated throughout his 2024 campaign is a possible 60 percent tariff on all Chinese-produced goods.Trump has repeatedly claimed that his threat to implement heavy tariffs—even against close allies such as Mexico and Canada—is merely an attempt to set the pace for potential negotiations over any number of issues, such as fentanyl. Beijing added 28 U.S. companies—mainly defense industry firms—to its export control list, citing a need to 'safeguard national security and interests,' Reuters reported. The list includes such companies as General Dynamics, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Missiles & Defense. Officials also targeted 'dual use' items, which are goods with both a military and civilian application, and often prove critical to defense manufacturing. William Alan Reinsch, senior adviser for the Economics Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), called the move 'preemptive retaliation,' serving as the 'latest shot across the bow' for the U.S.'There have been a number of them – export controls on gallium, germanium, antimony, the investigation of micron, tougher export controls on some of the same critical materials,' Reinsch told Newsweek. 'They've gradually been tightening the screws