Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. Photo: VCG

China is against any government imposing unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday in response to Ukrainian government's decision to sanction four Chinese companies and three Chinese citizens who participated in the Motor Sich deal.

According to Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, China has always asked Chinese companies to operate legally overseas. 

Motor Sich is the maker of jet engines for the defense industry in Ukraine, according to media reports. It was established in 1907, manufacturing turboprops, turbofans and turboshafts, and it works closely with Ukraine's Ivchenko-Progress design bureau, industry journal Flight Global said.

The Ukraine's state security service is investigating the deal after the government imposed sanctions on Chinese investors that were seeking to purchase a stake in the company on Friday.

At the end of last year, Chinese investors in Motor Sich have sought international arbitration against Ukraine with a demand for compensation of $3.5 billion, under an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of investments, after experiencing what they said was continuous obstruction by Ukrainian authorities on a purchase proposal.

Genghis Khan Airlines, one of the Chinese companies which are under sanction and had sought for compensation over the deal, issued a statement on Sunday that it has been in negotiation with the Ukrainian government since July 2017. Previously the company said that the management of Montor Sich had refused to acknowledge that the Chinese investors are legal shareholders of the company. 

The Chinese company holds between 50 and 80 percent of Motor Sich, according to local media reports.