Editor's note: Kang Jie is assistant research fellow of China Institute of International Studies. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In recent years, sanctions, no matter how rude and ridiculous they are, have been enshrined in the foreign policy bible by the US government. On local time Thursday, the US State Department announced sanctions against the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission of China and the head of the department.

According to the US statement, the reason for the sanctions was that the Chinese People's Liberation Army purchased the Su-35 fighter jet and the S-400 air defense system from Russia.

In 2017, the US Congress passed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), under which any country or person dealing with listed Russian defense companies will face so-called "secondary sanctions" from the US government.

The sanctions against China are the first time the bill has gone into effect. The stated purpose of the sanctions is to punish Russia for its involvement in Ukraine, as well as its alleged cyber-meddling in the 2016 US elections and its transfer of arms to Syria.

By its definition, "secondary sanctions" apply to non-US persons for wholly non-US conduct that occurs entirely outside the country's jurisdiction. Punishing the entity or person outside its own sovereignty is not only ridiculous paranoia, but also undisguised arrogance.

Increasing sanctions against third parties in recent years shows how deep US foreign policy is sliding into the abyss of unilateralism.

What are the real goals of those sanctions? What should be kept in mind is that the United States opened certain "back-doors" to the sanctions. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 passed in July 2018, granting the US president a waiver clause to the CAATSA -- if it is considered to be "in the US diplomatic interest," the president has the right to announce a 180-day sanction exemption period to a country. 

Many analysts believe that this waiver clause is tailor-made for strategic partners like India and Vietnam, whose armed forces are equipped with many Russian weapons and can't afford a quick cut-off from the Russian military industry.

However, the final decision on the waiver still lies in the hands of the US president, which means countries in urgent need of maintaining arms sales with Russia will have to yield to political and strategic pressures from the United States.

Given the fact that China has experienced Western military embargoes for more than three decades, the sanctions will likely cause little damage to China's military modernization. 

In fact, the sanctions against China should be regard as a signal to other regional players that also engage in potential arms sales with Russia, such as India, Turkey, Vietnam and Indonesia. The Trump administration may have three goals for the sanctions.

Firstly, push Russian companies out of its traditional markets, starve the Russian defense industry, and destroy the legitimacy of the Putin government. According to the US State Department, the CAATSA sanctions tools "stopped billions of dollars from flowing into Russia."

For example, this sanction directly led to the Bank of India freezing about 100 million US dollars that should have been paid to Russian defense companies in April.

Secondly, use the waiver clause as bait or leverage, induce and force countries that need to maintain arms sales with Russia to accept the political and diplomatic conditions proposed by the United States. As mentioned above, India may meet some US requirements in exchange for the waiver, such as increasing procurement from the US defense industry, making further concessions on US-India intelligence sharing, etc.

Thirdly, force those countries to gradually re-adopt weapon systems and technology standards from the United States and other Western countries, thus casting influence on those countries of geostrategic significance. According to some US military analysts, both India and Vietnam have the intention to convert to NATO military technology standards. 

Turkey, who is reportedly in negotiations to purchase the S-400 air defense missile system, may also abandon the procurement in the face of sanctions. Controlling the channel of military trade will help strengthen control on the geopolitical swinging 

China should resolutely counter the sanctions. In addition to cancelling or postponing military exchanges, China can also engage in a tit for- tat by resorting to other countermeasures.

It's time to expand the scope of sanctions against the US government, legislature and enterprises. Members of legislative bodies (including the Senate, the House of Representatives and the State legislatures) who used to openly published remarks that jeopardize China's reunification, and advocate military cooperation and arm sales to Taiwan should be blacklisted.

Besides sanctions against themselves, other sanctions will be selectively imposed on their campaign teams and companies in their constituencies. For example, impose sanctions upon the main sponsors behind the relevant member half a year before the election. Moreover, US government officials and members of legislative bodies who have participated in the reception of visiting Taiwan politicians should also be blacklisted.

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