China is not afraid of pressure from the US and continues to import Russian oil, "going against the trend"
According to Hong Kong English media South China Morning Post, despite continuous pressure from the United States, Russia remained China's largest crude oil supplier in September this year.
Data released by China Customs on October 20 showed that China imported 8.287 million tons of crude oil from Russia in September, an increase of 4.3% compared to the previous month, with an import value of 4.066 billion US dollars. This data indicates that despite geopolitical tensions, China is willing to maintain trade relations with Russia.
The data also shows that since June, China has suspended the purchase of US crude oil, although the share of US crude oil in China's total imports was already small previously.
With the progress of Sino-Russian cross-border pipeline projects, the two countries' cooperation continues to deepen, and the total amount of liquefied natural gas imported from Russia in September increased slightly by 1.9% year-on-year.
At the same time, China's crude oil imports from Indonesia surged, with the amount imported in September increasing by about 73 times compared to the same period last year; imports from Brazil also rose sharply by 156%, broadening China's energy supply channels.
"Increasing the purchase of crude oil from Russia is a gesture shown by China, going against the trend (defiance) before further negotiations with the United States," said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
"I don't see any reason for China to give up Russian crude oil, unless, for example, Trump is willing to cancel all tariffs on China and lift sanctions on Chinese companies," he added.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846569183273097/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.