New Delhi, July 10 -- BEIJING - For years, multinational companies operating in China treated Beijing's anti-sanctions laws as theoretical constructs, serious on paper, rarely enforced. That calculation shifted in May 2026, when Chinese authorities invoked the 2021 anti-foreign sanctions law for the first time, citing US sanctions on Chinese oil refineries, and gave foreign firms 30 days to comply with Beijing's legal requirements or face consequences that included asset freezes, visa cancellations, and the termination of operating licenses.

The invocation was a warning. The decrees that followed were architecture.

Beijing issued State Council Decree No. 834 in March 2026 and Decree No. 835 in April, laying out enforcement procedures un...