Our Exploration of Countermeasures against the Abuse of Unilateral Sanctions by the United States

Abstract

Currently, the international landscape is undergoing changes, with unilateralism on the rise. Of which, economic sanctions are the most common form. Due to the lack of effective specialized international rules in the current international rule system, unilateral sanctions are increasingly frequently used by individual countries. The abuse of unilateral sanctions has impacted the normal operation of international mechanisms. Unilateral sanctions were originally used in a country’s domestic law, but now some countries, such as the United States, expand their own laws’ extraterritorial application through the continuous expansion of connection points, thereby giving their sanctions against foreign entities a cloak of legitimacy, which goes against the principles of international law and the basic norms of international relations (Bai, 2018). From a legal perspective, the implementation of illegal unilateral sanctions is achieved through the improper interpretation and application of international treaty exception clauses. From international custom, unilateral sanctions beyond countermeasures refer to those imposed by states other than the injured state, who deliberately legalize countermeasures related to sanctions, which greatly contributes to the abuse of unilateral sanctions. In this context, China should accelerate the construction of its anti-sanctions legal system to effectively counter the threats and damages caused by unilateral sanctions and firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security, and development interests.