U.S. Unilateral Sanctions: Stifling rule-based international order

Editor's note: He Weiwen is a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG). The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Hundreds of lawyers have sent a joint letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, appealing for an end to unilateral economic sanctions, according to a report by Bloomberg. The letter condemned the sanctions as a collective punishment to ordinary civilians, and a violation of international law.

Self-styled as the world gendarme, the United States has been exerting unilateral political, economic and financial sanctions over other sovereign states, businesses, banks and institutions over the past decades and thus has caused serious difficulties and humanitarian crises in various countries around the world.

Ever since 1960, after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Washington has been exerting across-the-board severe sanctions on Cuba. It announced a total economic trade, finance and travel blockade on Cuba, and froze Cuban assets in America. The over 10 million Cuban people have long been suffering severe disasters, unable to get sufficient food, fuel, daily necessities and drugs in the decades leading up the present day. Those with severe, often life-threatening illnesses weren't given access to essential, life-saving medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020-2022, stemming from U.S. sanctions, Cuba wasn't afforded access to necessary medical materials and equipment, such as respirators, with the ultimate cost being the lives of its own citizens.

The UN General Assembly have passed 30 resolutions calling to end U.S. sanctions on Cuba. The last resolution, passed on November 2, 2023, saw 187 in favor, with only 2 against (the U.S. and Israel). The fundamental reason is that the U.S. sanctions on Cuba violate relevant international law, the UN Charter, and thus constitute a blunt encroachment upon Cuban citizens' human rights of lives, health and well-being.

Similarly, the U.S. sanctions on Iran over the years have pushed over 10 million ordinary Iranian citizens below the poverty line, creating yet another humanitarian disaster. Why? The only reason is Iran's violation of its nuclear agreement. However, Iran did not violate the Iran Nuclear Agreement signed onto by Iran, the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany and adopted by the UN Security Council on July 20, 2015. The Trump Administration quitted the agreement on May 8, 2018, and since then started its unilateral sanctions on Iran, in defiance of the UN-based agreement. It is a blunt challenge to the UN resolution and the relevant international law, based on its own need.

Despite being a signatory, Washington doesn't seem to care about the UN resolution, nor international law, and went further to sanction the Chinese Kunlun Bank for being involved in oil trade with Iran, which is not banned by the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

The U.S. unilateral sanctions on Huawei are a shameless example of the U.S. own unilateral will, without any factual, nor grounding in international law.

Over recent years, the U.S. closed SWIFT, the international banking system, to Russia after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict which also has not basis basis in international law. Ultimately affecting ordinary Russian businesses and citizens, they aimed to kill two birds with one stone, and they also aimed to penalize Chinese companies doing normal business with Russia and Chinese local banks for their payment settlement. Washington has repeatedly warned to block leading Chinese banks off SWIFT, on the absurd ground of "supporting the Russian defense industry base". It is a blunt violation of the relevant international law on non-discriminative, free cross-border trade, payment and settlement. SWIFT itself is only an association on recording the information on cross-border payment and settlement flows, and thus should not be used as a political to target international competitors or advirsaries.

The White House has repeatedly identified China as its prime strategic competitor, and the reason it gives is "China is the only country that has both the will and ability to change rule-based international order", and thus constitutes the gravest challenge to the U.S. The frenzied U.S. long-arm jurisdictions and its unilateral sanctions in various parts of the world, are ultimately textbook, showing that the U.S. "rule-based" is not the UN Charter, nor international law, but its own rule, based on its own strategic needs or practical interest. The "international order" it claims is not the real international order with the UN and its charter at the core, but an order based on its selfish needs and desires. In fact, the U.S. is the world largest breaker of international rules and order, and a grave threat to stability and sustainable growth in world economy and global financial markets. 

China will, as always, upholds the UN Charter and international law and oppose any unilateral sanctions which violate such. While maintaining and developing stable economic and trade relations with the U.S., China will resolutely oppose it's unilateral sanctions and believes that unilateral sanctions on other countries will ultimately come home to roost.