China's ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) announced (July 15) that it would sanction US aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin, the principal contractor in a US$ 620 million arms deal to Taiwan. MoFA did not say what specifically the sanctions would entail.

(Comment: The sanctions are in retaliation to the US State Department approving a deal the previous week, which would allow Taiwan to upgrade its American-supplied Patriot missiles.)