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Aug. 6 (UPI) — China has issued retaliatory sanctions against seven U.S. companies and organizations it accused of aiding U.S. punitive measures targeting Beijing, the latest tit-for-tat move between the world’s two largest economic powers, issued weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping‘s September visit to Washington.

Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce issued the sanctions in separate orders Wednesday, effectively imposing a China-wide ban on commercial and institutional dealings with the seven entities.

Applied DNA Sciences Inc. Stratum Reservoir LLC, Altana Technologies Inc., Responsible Business Alliance, Verite Group Inc, and Human Rights in China were blacklisted for assisting and supporting “the United States’ illegal sanctions concerning Xinjiang,” the ministry said in a statement.

Compliance Testing LLC was hit for assisting and supporting U.S. Federal Communications Commission actions “harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said in a second statement.

China imposed the ban against the five U.S. companies and one nongovernmental organization less than a week after the United States added 43 companies to its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, effectively banning the import of their products on thee presumption they were made using the forced labor of Uyghurs in northwestern Xinjiang region.

The U.S. State Department declared China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority group a genocide in 2021, alleging that Beijing has arbitrarily imprisoned at least 1 million of them. China has been credibly accused of subjecting Uyghurs to forced sterilization, forced labor and forced detention, as well as imposing draconian restrictions on their freedom of religion, expression and movement. Several other governments, as well as legal and civil independent bodies, have also accused China of genocide.

China vehemently rejects the accusations, claiming the camps are for eduction and training.

A Commerce Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that “China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes” the sanctioning of the 43 companies.

The statement announcing the retaliatory measures said the U.S. move seriously violated international law, the basic norms governing international relations and an infringed upon its sovereignty, security and development interests.

It was unclear exactly how the five companies and one nongovernmental organization were involved, but China’s ministry said “their conduct is egregious.”

Human Rights in China, an NGO founded in 1989, condemned being sanctioned by China, calling it “a blatant act of retaliation against entities working to ensure that international trade and commerce are not tainted by forced labor and other serious human rights abuses.”

“It is another attempt by the Chinese government to intimidate and silence organizations that advocate for universal human rights and corporate accountability,” it said in a statement.

“While we were surprised to find HRIC included alongside organizations we were previously unfamiliar with, we regard this designation as a badge of honor.”

The ministry blacklisted Compliance Testing after the FCC on July 28 banned foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, a move that some said specifically targeted China. It also came amid reports that the Trump administration was drafting a ban on Chinese data center components.

Compliance Testing’s alleged involvement was not clear, but China’s Commerce Ministry alleged that it was involved in the FCC’s measures “seriously infringing upon the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies.”

In response to reports concerning the drafting of the new Chinese electronics ban, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, “China opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to go after Chinese businesses.”

“Protectionism will not make the U.S. more competitive. The U.S. move seriously disrupts normal trade and economic exchanges between Chinese and U.S. businesses and consumers or anyone else for that matter,” he said in a statement. “China will continue firmly protecting our businesses’ legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”

The countermeasures come weeks before Xi is expected to visit Washington on Sept. 24 for talks with Trump on artificial intelligence, technological competition and global economic relations.

June 24 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned five Cuban state companies and the wife of Raul Castro‘s son, as the Trump administration continues to apply economic pressure on the Caribbean nation.

Three of the companies blacklisted by the State Department on Tuesday are associated with Grupo de Administracion Empresarial, which the United States initially sanctioned during the first Trump administration on accusations of being a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise with interests sprawling throughout the island nation’s economy.

The two other entities hit are accused of operating in Cuba’s mining sector with foreign investment from Australia as well as working in collaboration with Russia.

Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cadero was sanctioned for being the wife of Alejandro Castro Espin, the son of Raul Castro, Cuba’s former head of state. Alejandro Castro was sanctioned by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media statement that he was sanctioning GAESA network entities for diverting Cuba’s money and assets and the two other companies for exploiting its mineral and metal reserves.

“The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic well-being of the Cuban people,” he said.

Sanctions generally freeze U.S.-based property or interests in property under the control of those designated while threatening foreign businesses with secondary sanctions for doing business with them.

The United States has long imposed a blockade and sanctions on Cuba, but the economic punitive measures have starkly increased during the second Trump administration, exasperating the power and energy shortages in the country, causing blackouts. The supply shortages have forced more than 100,000 people, including 11,000 children, to wait for surgeries, according to the United Nations.

Tuesday’s designations come under an executive order Trump signed in May permitting the sanctioning of those operating in Cuba’s energy, defense, mining and financial services sectors, as well as those complicit in human rights abuses or corruption related to Cuba working or for providing services to the Havana government.

Trump has been increasing the political and economic pressure on Cuba since ousting Venezuela’s authoritarian leader in January, declaring a national emergency with respect to the island nation early this year.

Since signing the sanctions-related executive order in May, he has used it at least five times to designate Cuba-related entities and individuals.

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of increasing its sanctions regime against Havana, because Havana continues to prove it is “stronger, more capable and efficient than it expected.”

He accused the Trump administration of collectively punishing the Cuban people.

Ernesto Soberon, Cuba’s United Nations ambassador, accused the United States of lying about employing sanctions due to human rights abuses by Havana.

“No government, no person with even a shred of common sense — and certainly not the people of #Cuba, who are suffering the humanitarian impact of the U.S. economic war — can believe that the tightening of the blockade, the energy siege and the newly announced sanctions are intended to support the Cuban people,” he said on social media.

“Anyone who has doubts should ask the parents of the more than 12,000 children currently awaiting surgery in Cuba as a result of the U.S. government’s genocidal policy.”