China’s new protection minister was beforehand sanctioned by US for getting army tools from Russia

Chinese Gen. Li Shangfu, an aerospace engineer and veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, was named as China’s new protection minister on Sunday. 

Li was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 when he was director of the Equipment Development Department, which oversees the nation’s army expertise. 

The State Department mentioned that Li was concerned within the buy of Su-35 fight plane and supplies for S-400 surface-to-air missiles from a sanctioned Russian firm. 

CHINA HAS STOLEN US MILITARY SECRETS TO CREATE FORMIDABLE J-20 KNOCKOFF OF AMERICA’S F-22 RAPTOR: EXPERTS

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was elected to a 3rd five-year time period this week by China’s rubber stamp legislature, known as for his nation on Wednesday to bolter its army to “world-class requirements” and “systematically improve the nation’s general power to deal with strategic dangers.”

Zhang Youxia (C), newly-elected Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China, swears an oath with Central Military Commission members He Weidong and Li Shangfu after they had been elected through the fourth plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2023.  (GREG BAKER/Pool by way of REUTERS/File Photo)

Chinese army spending is rising 7.2% this 12 months to $230 billion. 

CHINA DISMISSES AMERICAN CONCERNS ABOUT ‘SPY CRANES’ AS ‘PARANOIA’

Four Republican chairman of House committees issued a joint assertion on Friday citing the army build-up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as one of many gravest threats to U.S. nationwide safety. 

“It is obvious from this menace evaluation that the techniques the CCP makes use of to perform its objectives haven’t labored solely in its favor, leaving our nation at a tipping level. The CCP should not be underestimated, however the U.S. can nonetheless triumph in a peer-to-peer competitors with the CCP if our authorities acts in a swift and unified method,” the congressmen wrote. 

Their warning got here days after Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang mentioned that his nation is heading for “battle and confrontation” with the U.S. 

“If the United States doesn’t hit the brake — however continues to hurry down the improper path — no quantity of guardrails can stop derailing and there’ll certainly be battle and confrontation and who will bear the catastrophic penalties?” Qin mentioned at his first press convention on Tuesday. 

“Such competitors is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the elemental pursuits of the 2 peoples and even the way forward for humanity.”

Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie and Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report, in addition to Reuters.