Striking Back Hard Against the US, China Announces 5 Countermeasures

China's strategy is simple: throw one punch to avoid a hundred.

On Wednesday, August 5, China fired back with five consecutive moves to counter a string of recent US measures that Beijing sees as hostile. A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce called the countermeasures "generally restrained." The message was clear: since the China-US presidential meeting in Busan, the US Federal Communications Commission has ignored China's strong opposition and industry appeals. It keeps stretching the concept of national security to roll out restrictions on China.

Meanwhile, the US has added over 40 Chinese entities to the so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list. China demands the US immediately revoke these measures. And if Washington insists on new restrictions, "China will further retaliate."

China's moves are a direct answer to a series of petty US actions that fall into two main areas.

First, the FCC. Before the government took action, the People's Daily fired a warning shot. Under the byline "Zhong Sheng," it blasted the FCC for hiding behind banners like "non-discrimination" and "national security" to discriminate against and suppress Chinese companies.

The FCC recently added foreign-made power inverters and advanced robotic equipment to its so-called "Covered List." That means new models can't get certification and are locked out of the US market. The paper called the tactic typical unilateral bullying.

This isn't new. Back in 2021, the FCC put telecom and video surveillance gear from five Chinese companies on the list. Since then, it has steadily widened the net. In April, it proposed revoking the qualifications of testing and certification bodies from countries that haven't signed a "Mutual Recognition Agreement" with the US. That artificially raises the compliance bar for Chinese products.

And now, Reuters reports the FCC is drafting a ban on imports of new Chinese-made optical communication transceivers for data centers.

Second, the Xinjiang sanctions. On July 30, the US Department of Homeland Security added over 40 Chinese entities to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The move, effective August 3, swells the list from 144 to 187, the biggest expansion since it was created. The new targets span food, clothing, and cotton. They include snack maker Qia Qia melon seeds, frozen food producer Zhengzhou Synear dumplings, and apparel brand Fujian Septwolves.

When the news hit the Chinese internet, netizens erupted in mockery. The joke going around teasing that "eating melon seeds can easily damage US soldiers' teeth."

China didn't waste a second. It fired back with five countermeasures, and the first one hits where it hurts: drones. Beijing is tightening export controls on drones and related technologies to the US. From now on, every shipment of drones, key components, and controlled technologies will face a strict case-by-case review.

And forget about any 'licensing facilitation' exemptions—those are off the table. Think about it: China is the world's drone superpower. The US wanted to block Chinese drones from coming in. Now China is flipping the script—it's restricting what goes out. The message is blunt: just because you want to buy doesn't mean we'll sell. Especially not advanced drones and components with military uses.

The second measure is a highly targeted strike: China has added six US entities to its Countermeasures List, all of which it says assisted US sanctions on Xinjiang-related companies.

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. is believed to provide DNA-based traceability and verification services for relevant products.

Stratum Reservoir, LLC is believed to conduct stable-isotope testing and related analysis to determine the origin of Xinjiang-linked materials.

Altana Technologies, Inc., which operates a global supply-chain mapping and management platform, is believed to help the US government trace supply chains involving Xinjiang-linked products.

The Responsible Business Alliance, which promotes responsible business conduct in global supply chains and operates assessment programmes for member companies, is believed to help companies exclude Xinjiang-linked products from their supply chains.

Verité Group, Inc., a nonprofit focused on labour rights and human rights, examines alleged forced labour in global supply chains.

Human Rights in China, a New York-based human-rights organization, advocates sanctions related to Xinjiang.

China’s countermeasures against these six entities are therefore highly targeted.

The third measure targets a US compliance testing company that helped the FCC impose China-related sanctions. That company will now be locked out of the compliance testing business in the Chinese market. The ripple effect: it could drive up compliance costs for US products trying to enter China.

The fourth measure hits at the heart of product certification. China is suspending the entrustment of US agencies to conduct factory follow-up inspections for CCC certification. Remember, CCC certification is a must-have for US products to enter the Chinese market. By pulling the plug on US inspectors, China shifts the review work to its own agencies. That spells more time and more uncertainty for American exporters.

The fifth measure, a national security investigation into imported US printing and copying office equipment. On the surface, this one looks like a light tap.

China imported about $2.08 billion worth of such equipment in 2025, mostly from Japan ($1.72 billion). The US slice was small. But this is just the opening move.

The US has banned Chinese software and hardware from connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads—and until now, China held its fire.

Now Beijing is investigating US printers and copiers on national security grounds. The message is unmistakable: if Washington plays the national security card at every turn, Beijing can just as easily slap an 'unsafe' label on American phones and EVs running US software.

But that's not the main battlefield. Artificial intelligence is the real arena. Over the past month, Chinese companies have rolled out one high-performance, low-cost AI model after another, sending US AI giants reeling. When Anthropic released a new model in June, the US government demanded it be kept out of non-American hands. The clash forced Anthropic to pull the model. Trump signed an executive order in June setting up an AI safety framework, including a voluntary program for companies to submit cutting-edge models for government review.

Then Chinese developers like Moonshot AI and DeepSeek unleashed open-source systems that rival top-tier US models, fueling a fierce debate in Washington over how to regulate open-weight models. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei pushed for mandatory government safety reviews for both open and proprietary models, taking direct aim at Chinese open-source systems. He won backing from Treasury Secretary Bessent and others, but ran into a wall of opposition from US tech giants, including Nvidia.

On August 4, the Trump administration delivered its verdict. In a meeting led by the Office of the National Cyber Director, top US AI companies were told that under the new AI safety framework, open-source models from Chinese rivals would not face US government safety testing.

For Anthropic, it was a crushing defeat. US National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross later spelled out the thinking at a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas: the US government wants to back the American open-source AI ecosystem. He called such models 'tremendously valuable' and insisted the regulatory framework must stay 'flexible.'

Otherwise, he warned, 'it would not only stifle growth, development, and innovation, but the regulatory regime would become obsolete within 48 hours of completing its process.'

The bottom line: Washington keeps chipping away at China with petty moves. But when the pile gets high enough, Beijing punches back hard—and signals it has heavier blows ready.

President Xi is due to visit the US in September, and Trump will be in Shenzhen in mid-November for the APEC summit. Trump doesn't want things to spiral out of control; at crunch time, he'll yank the leash on his officials.

The real battlefield is artificial intelligence. It was almost certain that the White House's decision to leave Chinese open-source models alone came after fierce pushback from China.

 Lo Wing-hung

Bastille Commentary

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

Some events look like accidents. But savor the political implications, and you realize they are anything but simple.

Recently, a terrifying refugee wave hit Spain. The epicenter: Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast.

Spain sits at Europe's southwestern tip. Ceuta, by contrast, is at the northernmost edge of the Maghreb, a Spanish autonomous city that borders Morocco.

On July 30, a massive wave of illegal immigrants swam into Ceuta. Some media put the number at 49,000 in just 24 hours, mostly Moroccans.

Videos of the chaos surfaced online. Some edited the footage to look like a zombie invasion. Trump's close friend Musk reposted one, calling it a joke. But the schadenfreude was unmistakable.

Later, the vast majority were deported back to Morocco. But the incident left at least 67 migrants dead.

Their bodies were pulled from the sea, deflated floats drifting nearby. Most drowned.

This refugee storm was ostensibly triggered by rumors.

The immediate spark: a misinterpreted ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court in early July. The court said illegal immigrants arriving by sea in Ceuta could not be immediately deported. But that was just a procedural provision. It did not mean they could obtain legal status.

The decision was quickly twisted into explosive rumors. Some claimed that simply swimming into Ceuta guaranteed the right to stay in Spain and eventually gain legal status. Others insisted that Spain had opened its borders.

By last week, Instagram and other platforms were flooded with videos and photos of migrants successfully crossing. The images spurred a wave of copycats.

A 16-year-old Moroccan who entered illegally said he took the risk after seeing those very videos on Instagram. It was later confirmed that many of the images were old photos passed off as real, or even AI-generated fakes. Paired with misleading text, they were disguised as footage of successful smuggling into Ceuta. They incited a flood of illegal immigrants to swim into the territory.

The vast majority of the illegal immigrants who stormed the border were Moroccans. Morocco's economic situation is dire: youth unemployment sits at 37%, and 25% of young people are trapped in a triple bind of no education, no employment, and no poverty alleviation. They reacted fiercely to the false messages swirling online, convinced that swimming ashore would grant them residency in Spain.

In the end, the Spanish government quickly brought the situation under control and returned those who had entered illegally to Morocco.

But the incident triggered a major political shock. Far-right Italian Prime Minister Meloni was the first to attack. Her Brothers of Italy party quickly posted footage of illegal immigrants running through the streets of Ceuta, along with a mocking caption: "This is the Sánchez model the Italian left wing likes so much."

Meloni then announced that she would suspend the Schengen Agreement, which allows free movement of people between Italy and Spain, citing security threats.

Italy's move infuriated Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez. The Socialist leader lashed out at some EU countries for attacking Spain during the crisis, playing political calculations instead of providing support.

From Spain's perspective, the influx of refugees had already been brought under control. Ceuta itself is not part of the Schengen Area; its residents were never able to move freely within the EU under the Schengen Agreement. Moroccan illegal immigrants could never have traveled to the European mainland without checks. Italy's action was simply making an issue out of nothing.

The real question: was the surge of illegal immigration in Ceuta an accident, or was it orchestrated behind the scenes? Western far-right forces look like the prime suspects.

Meloni was the first to be questioned. Even the BBC reported that she was simply exploiting the situation, and she knew it very well.

As the BBC notes, Meloni faces elections next year. Her ruling coalition is bleeding support, under fire from a fierce new anti-immigration party.

This was her moment to project strength and claw back votes. She seized it immediately.

Spain has been angering its Western allies. And it's not just its relatively lenient attitude toward immigration.

Prime Minister Sánchez has long maintained friendly relations with China, putting him outside the EU mainstream.

Then there's his flat refusal to hike military spending to 5% of GDP, as Trump demands. That makes him a maverick among EU heavyweights, and it has infuriated Trump.

Back on July 8, Trump met with NATO Secretary General Rutte. He didn't mince words: Spain was hopeless. The US wanted no business with Spain.

He wanted to cut off all trade, even official visits.

After the refugee surge in Ceuta, Trump gleefully weighed in. He described the scenes “looks like an invasion”. He said it was terrible, told people to remember the picture, and warned that “that same thing's going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected, except worse, much bigger”.

Trump directly linked the Spain incident to the US election. Highly suspicious.

The geopolitical situation is extremely tense. Spain just got hit by a sudden refugee surge. Most of the migrants have been sent back, but Sánchez is deeply wounded. This may have been premeditated.

The real attack on Spain isn't the refugee wave. It's the far-right forces led by Trump.

 Lo Wing-hung