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U.S. President Donald Trump (right) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as he departs after visiting the Zhongnanhai gardens in Beijing on the 15th. / Reuters-Yonhap

China has announced sanctions and export restrictions targeting seven U.S. companies and institutions, in response to the U.S. recently banning imports of products from 43 Chinese companies and restricting imports of key data center equipment made in China, CNN reported on the 5th (local time).

The sanctions come ahead of a planned summit next month between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced that day that it would sanction several U.S. companies, including a biotech firm and a resources analysis company, and would tighten export controls on drones and related components and technology to the U.S.

The ministry said the move was retaliation for the U.S. banning imports from 43 Chinese companies last week over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minority groups, and that it had added six U.S. companies to China's "countermeasures list."

The companies named include Applied DNA Sciences, Stratum Reservoir, Altana Technologies, the Responsible Business Alliance, Veritree, and Human Rights in China.

China also said it was separately sanctioning Compliance Testing, a testing lab involved in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification.

The company played a key certification role when the FCC banned imports of Chinese-made humanoid and quadruped robots and power converters last month, citing national security. Because of this, China viewed it as an institution directly involved in enforcing U.S. regulations targeting China, and included it in its response.

The FCC had banned the import and sale of new drone models and key equipment from foreign manufacturers, including Chinese firms, in December of last year, also citing national security.

China's latest measures also include launching a national security review of imported office equipment loaded with foreign system software, and suspending certain factory-tracing inspection cooperation with the U.S.

A Commerce Ministry spokesperson said, "In response to the U.S.'s recent actions targeting Chinese companies, we have no choice but to take necessary retaliatory measures," urging the U.S. to immediately withdraw the relevant measures, stop its wrongful actions, and cooperate to maintain a constructive and stable China-U.S. relationship.

The spokesperson added, "If the U.S. insists on further restrictive measures against China, China will take additional countermeasures."

                                                                                                          Park Jin-sook