An analyst believes US sanctions on Chinese companies over having ties with North Korea are a form of “economic warfare” against China.

“This may be seen as sanctions in the Western press, all over the British newspapers for example … but it is not. It is a form of warfare and economic warfare nowadays is becoming much more important in many ways than actually fighting on the ground. So this is a very clear signal to Beijing that Washington is trying now to impose policy on Beijing,” Tony Gosling told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

The US has engineered some unprecedented and crippling international sanctions on North Korea since July when Pyongyang intensified its tests of long-range missiles and nuclear bombs.

The new sanctions announced Friday by the US Treasury Department cover one person, 27 companies and 28 ships, many of them operating in mainland China or on Taiwan and Hong Kong.