The U.S. government has moved to sanction six Chinese aerospace companies over their purported involvement in the communist country’s spy balloon program. 

The Commerce Department announced the sanctions on Friday, less than a week after the Air Force shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean that had traversed the continental U.S. 

“The PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] use of high-altitude balloons violates our sovereignty and threatens U.S. national security,” Alan Estevez, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said in a statement. “Today’s action makes clear that entities that seek to harm U.S. national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing U.S. technologies.”

The six Chinese entities in question will be placed on the Entity List, where trade restrictions are placed on companies that have been determined to jeopardize national security by the Commerce Department. 

The Chinese entities in question are Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute, Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology, Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group, Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group, and Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology.

According to the Epoch Times, several of the companies have developed projects with the Chinese military, and one of them specifically creates stratospheric airships. 

“The Commerce Department will not hesitate to continue to use the Entity List and our other regulatory and enforcement tools to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty,” Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said.

According to Commerce Department official Matthew Axelrod, action against the companies was taken to stop the spread of the Chinese balloon surveillance program. 

“Today’s action demonstrates our concerted efforts to identify and disrupt the PRC’s use of surveillance balloons, which have violated the airspace of the United States and more than forty countries,” he said.

The sanctions come the same day as the Air Force shot down an unidentified object over Alaska, just a week after the Chinese balloon incident. It is unclear if the new object is of Chinese origin or not. 

The object was reportedly flying around 40,000 feet, making it a threat to civilian aircraft.

“We have no further details about the object at this time, including any description of its capabilities, purpose, or origin,” said Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder. “The object was about the size of a small car, so not similar in size or shape to the high-altitude surveillance balloon that was taken down off the coast of South Carolina.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said during an interview Friday that communist China is conducting warfare against the United States by intentionally flooding the U.S. with fentanyl.

Ernst, who serves as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, made the remarks during an interview with CBS News.

“The Chinese are selling these precursor chemicals into Mexico. Then the Mexican cartels are working on making the fentanyl and distributing up into the United States,” Ernst said. “I think that the Chinese are intentionally poisoning America. And of course, the Chinese don’t want to assist us with this.”

“When we see an adversary like China poisoning our communities, it’s very disconcerting,” she added. “So we have to educate the American people. We have to work with our Mexican counterparts to push back against the cartel and the Chinese. We can’t continue to lose our youth to this fentanyl epidemic. It is extremely important that we push back.”

The report noted that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top official recently told the network that there is a relationship between the Chinese chemical companies and the Mexican drug cartels.

The opioid epidemic in the U.S. started in the late 1990s with the overprescribing of prescription narcotics, CNN reported, and has transitioned into opioid users overdosing at high rates due to the introduction of fentanyl to the illicit drug market.

Fentanyl is responsible for the most drug deaths in the U.S. right now, and it’s commonly found mixed with cocaine, heroin, and fake prescription drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and even Adderall, the report added.

Heroin became more easily available in the U.S. around 2010, the report said, with the introduction of fentanyl to the U.S. black market shortly thereafter which led to an immediate spike in drug deaths.

In 2021, the CDC said more than 106,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S., a 15% increase from the previous year.

“Mexican [drug cartels] will almost certainly have the greatest direct impact on the fentanyl market in the United States for the near future because of these organizations’ increased capacity and capabilities for fentanyl production, adaptations to restrictions on precursor chemicals, and existing drug trafficking infrastructure in the United States,” the DEA’s most recent National Drug Threat Assessment said.

The Mexican drug cartels “use a combination of methods to obtain chemicals used for fentanyl production in Mexico, primarily from sources originating in China, including purchases made on the open market, smuggling chemicals hidden in legitimate commercial shipments, mislabeling shipments to avoid controls and the attention of law enforcement, and diversion from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.”

“Law enforcement seizures in 2019 and 2020 include many chemicals which are uncontrolled in China and Mexico,” the report said. “The emergence of this chemical demonstrates the continued efforts by traffickers in Mexico and China to bypass international precursor chemical controls to continue producing illicit fentanyl.”