‘The US companies have imported from these firms (Chinese) without facing consequences or even knowing they had done so’, the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a Washington based think tank, said in its report to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The study attributed the weak enforcement of sanctions to ‘lack of resources and personnel’ on the part of OFAC.
State owned China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) alone made nearly 300 shipments to as many as 42 American companies since 2006. It is under sanctions regime since 2002.
Weak enforcement of sanctions has enabled the Chinese companies to circumvent the American
Laws and engage in trade with American firms through subsidiaries.
One Chinese company that adopted the ‘subsidiary’ and alias route is LIMMT Economic and Trade Company Ltd, which has been subjected to non-proliferation related sanctions since 2004.
With the result, US sanctions on Chinese companies involved in proliferation activities ended up as symbolic gestures.
