China has a new “foreign relations law” that gives it greater power to enforce Communist law around the world.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, says the law is a tool to fight against containment, interference, sanctions, and destruction. Those words echo what President Xi Jinping said about U.S. sanctions earlier this year.
One China state-run media outlet notes that Washington has now blacklisted more than 1,300 Chinese entities. Many of those sanctions come from human rights concerns and create a point of contention in Washington-Beijing relations.
The new law is meant to insulate the country from sanctions by nearly automating retaliatory measures. But the diplomat also says that the law will strengthen the Communist Party’s “centralized and unified leadership over foreign affairs.”
He believes it is time for China to protect foreign-related activities and transnational crimes the same way it does its national borders. In other words, the law boosts offshore police activities.