Today, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3), a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, released the following statement in response to China placing sanctions on five U.S. defense companies.

“The Chinese Communist Party will punish any company that falls out of line with its extreme, anti-democratic agenda. U.S. shareholders are exposed to potentially disastrous risk when companies do business in China, as they can and will freeze assets and cripple companies at any point,” Rep. Luetkemeyer said. “Publicly listed companies must be upfront about their ties to the CCP, as investors deserve to know that they could lose all their money in the blink of an eye. Top intelligence officials say China will invade Taiwan this decade, in which case more sanctions will go into effect. Now is the time to prepare.”

Background: The CCP’s new sanctions come in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The five U.S. companies— BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Alliant Techsystems Operations, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions— will lose any property they have in China and are prohibited from working with Chinese organizations and individuals.