China is officially an ally of Russia but the United States has trumpeted what it sees as Beijing’s tepid support for the war in Ukraine, including a refusal to supply Moscow with weapons.
But US officials have been concerned about activities by private Chinese companies, which Washington believes are unlikely to be working at the behest of the Chinese government but could be stopped by Beijing.
The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on an aviation firm based in the United Arab Emirates, Kratol, which it said had provided aircraft for the Wagner group to move personnel and equipment between the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
The Wagner Group, headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been especially active in the Central African Republic, where the Treasury Department blacklisted firms seen as part of the Russian unit.
The Wagner Group has taken an increasingly prominent role in Ukraine as it sends to the battlefield Russian inmates who are promised clemency.
The White House on Friday said that Wagner has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 80 per cent of them drawn from prisons.
