Gone are the days when China faced sanctions without fighting back

On Friday night, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced sanctions against seven US individuals and entities.

The move comes after the US sanctioned seven officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The latest sanctions by China is the first one announced after the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law came into effect on June 10, a measure that provides a solid legal basis for the sanction measures taken by China against foreign individuals and entities.

READ MORE: China imposes sanctions on seven US individuals, entities

In other words, gone are the days when the US could wave its club called "sanction" without needing to care about results. For every bad deed it commits against China, it will pay.

In other words, gone are the days when the US could wave its club called "sanction" without needing to care about results. For every bad deed it commits against China, it will pay

For US individuals and entities, being sanctioned by China means, first, that they will not be able to enter China and their companies or organizations will have trouble doing business with China. Many of the sanctioned individuals call themselves "experts on China", such as Sophie Richardson, China director of notorious organization Human Rights Watch. The sanctions will make them lose all connections with China, thus making their fabrications and lies lose their last fans.

Besides, the entities and companies launched or run by the sanctioned individuals will not be able to do business with China, a reason enough to shut many doors to them in the business field. On July 15, the official economic data for the first half of 2021 was released, showing a GDP growth rate of 12.7 percent. According to the China-America Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese market remains a long-term development destination of US companies despite worsening relationships.

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As the majority of US big companies need to do business with China, which of them would dare to hire a sanctioned individual at the risk of suffering in business?

For the other individuals and entities who have loud voices in the anti-China chorus, the sanction of the seven should be a warning that China is not a jackstraw that will take the blame lying down. Anybody daring to challenge China will get his/her deserved penalties.

Time for them to consider changing minds.

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