5 Virginia companies among 27 firms targeted by China for further trade constraints

BANGKOK (AP) — China announced Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” slate of double-digit tariffs.

The new tariff matches the rate of the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff of 34% on Chinese exports that Trump ordered this week.

Additionally, the Chinese government said it had added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls. Five companies listed are federal contractors in Northern Virginia.

One, RapidFlight, is a designer and manufacturer of unmanned aircraft based in Manassas. Mike Smith, a spokesman for the company and PR counsel from Falls Church’s GreenSmith Public Relations firm, said Friday the company considers its naming to the Chinese list “a badge of honor.”

He added that RapidFlight, which won a $10 million Air Force contract to develop 3D-printed autonomous drones in June 2024, has among its clients a Taiwanese drone company, Thunder Tiger Group, which it signed a memorandum of understanding with in July 2024 to investigate 3D printing of drones for Taiwan’s national defense.

RapidFlight also has connections to South Korea, and Smith said he suspects the ties to both South Korea and Taiwan, with which China has historical conflicts, landed the company on the list of 27 businesses with additional sanctions. Nonetheless, Smith says the company doesn’t expect to suffer financially from China’s action.

The other Virginia companies listed are: Act1 Federal, an aerospace business in Arlington County; Synexxus, an electronics design, manufacturing and engineering services company in Arlington; DTC, an Ashburn-based communications business owned by Australian electronics conglomerate Codan; and TextOre, a Fairfax company that specializes in open-source intelligence (OSINT) solutions.

In addition to the other sanctions against the U.S., the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

Included in the list of minerals subject to controls was samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defense sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans.

China’s customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from some U.S. suppliers after detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies.

Separately, it said had found high levels of mold in the sorghum and salmonella in poultry meat from some of the companies. The announcements affect one company exporting sorghum, C&D Inc., and four poultry companies.

Beijing also announced it filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs issue.

“The United States’ imposition of so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and international economic and trade order,” the Commerce Ministry said.

“It is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this,” it said.

Other actions include the launch of an anti-monopoly investigation into DuPont China Group Co., a subsidiary of the multinational chemical giant, and an anti-dumping probe into X-ray tube and CT tubes for CT scanners imported from the U.S. and India.

In February, China announced a 15% tariff on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas products from the U.S. It separately added a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.

Dozens of U.S. companies are subject to controls on trade and investment, while many more Chinese companies face similar limits on dealings with U.S. firms.

The latest tariffs apply to all products made in the U.S., according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance’s State Council Tariff Commission.

While friction on the trade front has been heating up, overall relations are somewhat less fractious.

U.S. and Chinese military officials met this week for the first time Trump took office in January to shared concerns about military safety on the seas. The talks held Wednesday and Thursday in Shanghai were aimed at minimizing the risk of trouble, both sides said.

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.