The Washington Times Bill Gertz reports today that the U.S.is penalizing eight Chinese firms for exporting germ-weapons materials and missile technology to countries like Iran.

The sales occurred between September 2000 and October 2001 and violated the Iran-Iraq Nonproliferation Act of 1992. The act mandates sanctions against companies or governments that make sales that "could materially contribute to either country's acquiring chemical, biological, nuclear, or destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons."

The State Department notified the Chinese government of the sanctions yesterday.

The sanctions bar the eight companies from doing business with the U.S. government and prohibit the latter from issuing export licenses to U.S. companies that seek to sell goods to the sanctioned firms.

The measures will be in place for two years.

China is communist. These "companies" are merely arms of the government -- it's not like they're rogue organizations running their own foreign policy.

Forget slapping sanctions on those eight companies. We need to slap sanctions on China -- period.

The persecution of Christians. The persecution of Falun Gong. The barbaric one-child policy.

The Chinese government is evil. We should be doing nothing that helps that evil government maintain its grip on power.