July 27 2022
The Chinese authorities are categorically against attempts by the United States to impose unilateral sanctions on Russian oil supplies to China. This was announced on Wednesday by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
“China is categorically against such illegal unilateral sanctions,” he said at a briefing, answering a question from TASS about how the PRC authorities feel about such plans by the United States. “China and Russia carry out normal trade and economic cooperation on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect “.
As the Chinese diplomat clarified, Beijing’s cooperation with Moscow is not aimed against anyone. “We will also not tolerate external interference,” Zhao Lijian stressed.
As Bloomberg reported earlier, US senators led by Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have proposed sanctions against companies involved in the sale of Russian oil and other energy resources to China. The bill provides for penalties for any organization that insures or registers tankers that transport oil or liquefied natural gas from Russia to China.
Editorial comment. Playing with fire. It is clear that Republican Senator Marco Rubio and his colleagues are primarily pursuing the goals of the election campaign and would like to embarrass the Democratic administration by accusing it of “insufficient” toughness towards Russia and, at the same time, ignite the fire of a trade war with China, which Donald Trump failed to accomplish fully. However, the absurdity of dictating whom, from whom and for how much to buy is so obvious that the US executive branch will hardly dare to subscribe to the initiative of the Rubio group.