"China is against the politicisation of commercial projects and illegal imposition of unilateral sanctions, this position is consistent and clear," Zhao Lijian said in response to a reporter's question at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
According to Zhao, the United States is pursuing its own geopolitical and economic interests to promote an "America first" principle, put their national law above international relations, impose unreasonable sanctions on normal cooperation between sovereign states and apply extraterritorial jurisdiction over other countries.
"Such blatant baiting and hegemonic thinking is a violation of international law and the basic norms of international relations, it also damages legitimate interests of other countries, [such actions] are doomed to be unpopular and will inevitably be faced with opposition from the international community," Zhao said.
The US imposed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Transadria company and Marlix ships flying Russian flags on Tuesday. Later that day, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that the US will continue to introduce new sanctions against the project. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded by stating that the US applies sanctions with or without reason and that the measures against the pipeline is a "blatant example."