The US administration has imposed sanctions on China's military for purchasing weapons from Russia. The US says China is in breach of sanctions Washington imposed on Moscow over Russia's involvement in Ukraine and its alleged interference in US politics. Meanwhile, China has responded strongly and is demanding that the sanctions be withdrawn.

The US state department later released a statement on the sanction, saying that it is "not intended to undermine military capacity or combat readiness of any country, but to impose costs to Russia's interference to the US election and its unacceptable behavior in Ukraine."

This sanction seems at odds with the friendly gesture presented by Mr. Trump to Putin on a personal level. Some experts see this as the result of the conflicting attitudes towards Russia within the White House. Alexander Nekrassov, a political analyst and former adviser to the Kremlin, described the sanction as an "underhand method to achieve unfair competition".

"The US wants to compete with Russia and use underhand methods, which has been lasted for many years," said Alexander. "When it comes to the policy decision, the president, Congress and the rest of his government are not aligned. It's dangerous that such nuclear superpower should be in a policy disorder."

Peter Kuznick, a professor of history at American University, disagreed. He suggested that the mainstream attitude towards Russia has remained unchanged for long.

"The demonization of Russia and Putin has not been changed ever since the development of Ukraine," said Peter. His concern is that such antagonistic militarily action by the US will further enhance the relationship between China and Russia.

The sanction took place in a broader context of the US strategic withdrawal from international affairs. While the US is alienating its position, taking actions like abrogating the Iran nuclear deal, national security issues of its allies like Israel is also a problem. Some experts thus interpreted this sanction as a threat to Israeli rivals like Iran.

Yuval Weber, a senior fellow at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute and an associate professor at Daniel Morgan Graduate School, said that the US was putting pressure on Iran to prevent it from increasing its activity in Syria and moves against Israel.

"The aim is to prevent a much wider war in the Middle East, and China is an unlucky victim here," said Yuval. This sanction, from his view, was already "the least harmful deterrent to Russia” because it deterred the “deter act", a far more aggressive sanction bill against Russia taken by those hardliners within the White House.

"The large thing is trying to maintain the pressure on Russia without making things too bad," he added.

China, on the other hand, took a hard position against the US military sanction. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang announced at a news conference that “We strongly urge the US side to immediately correct its mistake and withdraw the sanctions, or be prepared to bear the consequence."

Xu Qinduo, a senior fellow at the Pangoal Institution, said that the US was blaming China for a deal that was settled four years ago, and while this arms purchase may not comply with US laws, it has complied with international laws.

"Some thirty other countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, and India also purchased weapons from Russia, but the only one got sanctioned is China," said Qinduo. "This is unfair and unacceptable." In fact, many believed that these countries will get waivers from the US because of its policies with its allies.

In its state department statement, the US said that the sanction is "not aimed at any countries' defense capability", but China may not buy that.

"Due to the arms ban, China can't buy weapons from the US or European countries, and the only country left is Russia," said Xu. "It will certainly have an impact on the Chinese defense capability."

As he pointed out, the trust between China and the US is rotated, for there is no serious dialogue or engagement now. Combined with the trade war, the US is trying to drive investment out of China, cutting off its supply chain in the global development system, which suspends its development.

But China has no intention to escalate the conflict. Despite China's strong reaction to the sanction, Xu indicated that trade will remain the focus of China at this point.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.