China so far does not appear to be helping Russia evade Western financial sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, but doing so would “do profound damage” to China’s reputation, a senior official from the administration of US President Joe Biden said on Saturday.
“The latest signs suggest that China’s not coming to the rescue,” the official told reporters after announcing that the US and its allies agreed to impose sanctions against Russia’s central bank and disconnect key Russian banks from the SWIFT international financial transaction network.
Reports that some Chinese banks have stopped issuing letters of credit for purchases of physical commodities from Russia were a positive sign, the official said.
Photo: AP
This “suggests that, much like has been the pattern for years and years, China has tended to respect the force of US sanctions,” the official added.
China is Russia’s biggest trade partner for both exports and imports, buying one-third of Russia’s crude oil exports in 2020 and supplying it with manufactured products from cellphones and computers to toys and clothing.
Some of that trade is conducted in China’s yuan currency, which could technically fall outside of sanctions aimed at cutting Russia off from transactions in US dollars, euros, sterling and other major currencies.
However, Chinese banks that do business with Russian banks and other entities hit with full blocking sanctions and put on the US Department of the Treasury’s “specially designated nationals” list could face sanctions themselves and loss of access to the US financial system.
The official said that if China were to help Russia evade US sanctions, “it really would be an unfortunate signal for China’s vision of the world,” and give “tacit or explicit accommodation to Russia’s invasion of a sovereign country in the heart of Europe.”
“It would do profound damage to its reputation in Europe, but really across the world,” the official said of China.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS