Washington's addiction to sanctions is backfiring: Washington Post

NEW YORK -- The United States' addiction to sanctions has gotten out of control and is hurting itself, reported The Washington Post earlier this month.

The Treasury Department estimated in late 2021 that it had sanctions on 9,421 organizations and individuals, a roughly 900 percent increase over the past 20 years. In 2022, the Treasury Department added 2,549 new designations while delisting only 225. That means nearly 12,000 entities were under U.S. sanctions as of the beginning of this year, said the report.

"And looking only at Treasury Department designations substantially understates the pervasiveness of sanctions," it noted. "The U.S. government now increasingly uses export controls, tariffs and foreign investment reviews as a de facto form of commercial sanctions."

The Commerce Department, for example, recently imposed tighter controls on exports of advanced microchips to China. This move might be justified by the need to limit China's military threat, but the backlash it has provoked in China is heightened by all other sanctions and tariffs Washington has imposed on China in recent years, according to the report.