‘Play dirty’: Chinese official threatens US medical supplies over Huawei fight

China may restrict American access to medical supplies in retaliation for intensifying U.S. regulations on Huawei, according to a prominent economist and Chinese Communist Party adviser.

“For vitamins and antibiotics, more than 90% of their raw materials are produced in China,” Tsinghua University finance professor Li Daokui said in response to new regulations targeting the flagship telecommunications company. “The U.S. will definitely not be able to produce them in the short term.”null

Li’s comments evoke the thinly veiled threats that state-run media issued earlier this year as international anger raged over China’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic in the initial days of the crisis. He spoke after Commerce Department officials unveiled new regulations designed to make it more difficult for Huawei to obtain electronic supplies derived from U.S. technology, in keeping with American warnings that the telecommunications giant is a platform for Chinese spy services.

“Disrupting the Chinese economy is equivalent to picking a fight with the Chinese people on the food issue,” Li said, according to the South China Morning Post. “China can then pick a fight with the U.S. on the supply of medicines, right?”