The Biden administration is planning to impose new export controls and a fresh round of sanctions on Russia, targeting the latter’s defense and energy sectors, financial institutions and several individuals, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
With just days away from the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine crisis, it seems that the US and its allies still haven’t given up on using sanctions as a weapon to cripple the Russian economy.
But there is no way for such sanctions to affect China’s trade policy with Russia.
Media reports that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern on Sunday that “China may be considering providing lethal support to Russia” could be the latest example of such attempt.
Indeed, it is not the first time that US officials warned of consequences China may face in its economic cooperation with Russia. And there have been no shortage of hostile and irrational voices in the West that has been accusing China over its normal trade ties with Russia. Yet, such accusations laid bare the West’s hypocrisy and selfishness in pursuing their geopolitical goals, with no regard for the havoc on the world economy and the interests of non-Western countries.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday that it is the US, not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield. The US is in no position to tell China what to do. We would never stand for finger-pointing, or even coercion and pressurizing from the US on our relations with Russia.
It should be noted China’s stance on the Ukraine crisis has always been clear and is willing to play a constructive role in seeking and realizing peace.
China is not the only country that has not joined the unilateral Western sanctions against Russia. Many emerging economies around the world have still continued trade with Russia over the past year, such as India, Brazil and South Africa, among others. For example, official data showed that India’s imports from Russia have surged nearly 400 percent so far this fiscal year, fueled by purchase of discounted crude, the Nikkei Asia reported on Friday.
Under such circumstances, what on earth are the reasons for the West to pressure China to dance to Washington’s tune over Russia, especially when their sanctions have done nothing but caused the fragmentation of the global economy and has pushed peace further away?
The economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia has always been based on the respective economic development needs of two independent countries, free of external interference. There is no need for China to watch the attitude of the US or the West when it comes to trade with Russia.
The trade structure between China and Russia is highly complementary. Bilateral trade between China and Russia in 2022 rose 34.3 percent year-on-year to a record high of 1.28 trillion yuan ($190 billion) in yuan-denominated terms, according to Chinese customs data.
China’s exports of automobiles, mechanical and electronic products, and chemical products to Russia have risen rapidly, while Russia’s energy and agricultural exports to China have also surged. This shows that despite Western sanctions, there is still room and potential for China-Russia trade relations to deepen further, which is determined by the development needs of both sides.
As long as China’s foreign trade has always been following the global trade rules, in line with the common interests and needs of both sides as well as the interests of global development, the West is in no position to point fingers at the normal economic cooperation between the two countries.
If anything, the West needs to reflect on their handling of the Ukraine crisis and see the calling for peace will be eventually overwhelming for the sake of the world.
(Global Times)
