The United States imposed sanctions on more than a dozen companies in China and Hong Kong for their support of Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of a tranche of nearly 300 new sanctions unveiled Wednesday.

The move comes after repeated warnings from top US officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to top Chinese officials that they must crack down on China’s provision of dual-use items to Russia that the US says are being used to strengthen its military in the war against Ukraine.

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“The almost 300 targets being sanctioned by both Treasury and the Department of State include sanctions on dozens of actors that have enabled Russia to acquire desperately needed technology and equipment from abroad,” the Treasury Department said in a news release.

The sanctions also hit targets within Russia, as well as Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The sanctions are aimed at cracking down on sanctions evasion and support for Russia’s military-industrial base and its biological and chemical weapons programs. The Treasury Department also targeted those involved in providing precursor materials to Russia used in explosives.

According to a State Department fact sheet, its sanctions hit Chinese “entities responsible for developing, and supplying dual-use aerospace, manufacturing, and technology equipment to entities based in Russia.”

“Specifically, these designations target producers and exporters of items critical to Russia’s defense-industrial base, some of whom have shipped goods to U.S.- designated entities in Russia,” the fact sheet said.

The Biden administration has increasingly sounded the alarm about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base – support that the US says has allowed Moscow to continue its war against Ukraine.

Moreover, as Russia has begun to build back its defense capabilities, the US has sought to rally allies to pressure Beijing – via diplomatic means or, if that fails, punitive measures – to stop providing the support, and they are looking to see if that pressure has or will have an impact.

“Russia is no longer kind of on its back foot,” a senior State Department official said before Blinken’s trip to China. “They are surging. They have substantial assets, they reconstituted. They that pose a threat not just to Ukraine but to the wider region.”

The top US diplomat said following a day of meetings in Beijing that “when it comes to China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, all I can tell you is I was extremely clear about our concerns in some detail, but we’ll have to see what actions follow from that. “

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“It is absolutely critical that the support that it’s providing – not in terms of weapons but components for the defense industrial base – again, things like machine tools, microelectronics, where it is overwhelmingly the number-one supplier to Russia. That’s having a material effect in Ukraine and against Ukraine, but it’s also having a material effect in creating a growing that Russia poses to countries in Europe and something that has captured their attention in a very intense way,” he said last week.

Despite those conversations, there is little sign that Beijing intends to heed the US warnings.

New US penalties against Russia target weapons development and countries aiding in sanctions evasion

The United States on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on hundreds of companies and people tied to Russia's weapons development program, more than a dozen Chinese entities accused of helping Moscow find workarounds to earlier penalties, and individuals linked to the death of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The actions by the departments of Treasury and State target Russia’s military-industrial base, chemical weapons programs and people and companies in third countries that help Russia acquire weapons components as its invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the action “will further disrupt and degrade Russia’s war efforts by going after its military industrial base and the evasion networks that help supply it.”

The Senate, meanwhile, gave final approval to legislation barring imports of Russian uranium, boosting U.S. efforts to disrupt Russia’s war in Ukraine. Democratic President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

About 12% of the uranium used to produce electricity at U.S. nuclear power plants is imported from Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said Wednesday that Biden shares lawmakers’ concerns about U.S. reliance on Russia for low-enriched uranium to support its domestic nuclear fleet.

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Included in the administration's announcement are importers of cotton cellulose and nitrocellulose, which are used to produce gunpowder, rocket propellants and other explosives. The penalties also target Russian government entities and people tied to Russia's chemical and biological weapons programs, companies related to Russia's natural gas construction projects and three workers at the penal colony where Navalny died.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has railed against earlier rounds of U.S. and Western penalties, claiming they are “illegitimate sanctions” on his country.

A group of 16 targets in China and Hong Kong, most of which are related to Russian procurement workarounds, are named by the Biden administration.

Yellen traveled to Guangzhou and Beijing last month to warn Chinese officials that they “must not provide material support for Russia’s war and that they will face significant consequences if they do."

China has said it is not providing Russia with arms or military assistance, although Beijing has maintained robust economic connections with Moscow, alongside India and other countries, as the West imposes sanctions.

Companies in China, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were accused of helping Russia acquire technology and equipment from abroad. The penalties aim to block them from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.

Biden last week said he would immediately rush badly needed weaponry to Ukraine as he signed into law a $95 billion war aid measure that also included assistance for Israel, Taiwan and other global hot spots.

The upcoming uranium ban is also expected to impact Russian revenues by at least $1 billion. The U.S. banned Russian oil imports after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022 but did not against uranium, despite frequent calls to do so by U.S. lawmakers in both parties.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the import ban “a tremendous victory” and said it “will help defund Russia’s war machine, revive American uranium production and jumpstart investments in America’s nuclear fuel supply chain.″

“Wyoming has the uranium to replace Russian imports, and we’re ready to use it,″ Barrasso added.

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West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who heads that Senate committee, said it was "unconscionable” for the U.S. to help make it possible for Putin to “finance his unlawful war against Ukraine” through U.S. reliance on Russian uranium.

Besides the import ban, the legislation frees up $2.7 billion in previously authorized funding to ramp up domestic uranium production.