China drops sanctions on US communications firm in rare reversal

China said it was removing sanctions on a US communications company, a rare reversal after it targeted the company over proposed arms sales to Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning announced the move regarding Viasat Inc. during a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday. She said the situation had changed since the measures were put in place, without elaborating.

China sanctioned Viasat and four other US defense companies in January this year. The measures it imposed consisted of freezing the properties of the firms in the Asian nation, and prohibiting organizations and individuals in China from conducting transactions and cooperating with the companies.

The sanctions came just after the US State Department approved an estimated $300 million in possible weapons sales to Taiwan, the democratically run island that Beijing has pledged to bring under its control eventually.

Viasat operates several subsidiaries that handle businesses related to China, including a local branch of Inmarsat, a British satellite services provider that the US company acquired in 2023.

Inmarsat became famous a decade ago when it used satellite data to calculate the possible route of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 after it had gone missing.

Before the deal with Viasat, Inmarsat counted state broadcaster China Central Television, which was investing heavily in global video transmission, as one of its largest clients in the country. 

Viasat said on its website in 2019 that it had partnered with China Satellite Communications Co. to provide inflight WiFi to airlines in the world’s No. 2 economy. Then in 2022, the US company announced it reached an agreement to supply equipment to Sichuan Airlines.