\u201cCoercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The response is notable at a time when both Beijing and Washington are signaling optimism and goodwill about reaching a deal to keep commercial ties between the world\u2019s two largest economies stable \u2014 after climbing down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. It underscores China\u2019s confidence in playing hardball when dealing with the Trump administration, especially when trade is linked to its energy and foreign policies.<\/p>\n
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, emerging from the talks, told reporters that when it comes to Russian oil purchases, the \u201cChinese take their sovereignty very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to impede on their sovereignty, so they would like to pay a 100% tariff,\u201d Bessent said.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, he called the Chinese \u201ctough\u201d negotiators, but said China\u2019s pushback hasn\u2019t stalled the negotiations. \u201cI believe that we have the makings of a deal,\u201d Bessent told CNBC.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the consultancy Teneo, said he doubts President Donald Trump would actually deploy the 100% tariff. \u201cRealizing those threats would derail all the recent progress and probably kill any chance\u201d for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce a trade deal if they should meet this fall, Wildau said.<\/p>\n
In seeking to restrict oil sales by Russia and Iran, a major source of revenue for both countries, the U.S. wants to reduce the funding available for their militaries, as Moscow pursues its war against Ukraine and Tehran funds militant groups across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
China plays hardball<\/p>\n
When Trump unveiled a sweeping plan for tariffs on dozens of countries in April, China was the only country that retaliated<\/a>. It refused to give in to U.S. pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the U.S. is bent on imposing tariffs, China will fight to the end, and this is China\u2019s consistent official stance,\u201d said Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. WTO is the acronym for the World Trade Organization. <\/p>\n Negotiating tactics aside, China may also suspect that the U.S. won\u2019t follow through on its threat, questioning the importance Trump places on countering Russia, Tu said.<\/p>\n Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Beijing is unlikely to change its posture when it sees inconsistencies in U.S. foreign policy goals toward Russia and Iran, whereas Beijing\u2019s policy support for Moscow is consistent and clear. It\u2019s also possible that Beijing may want to use it as another negotiating tool to extract more concessions from Trump, Kennedy said. <\/p>\n Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Beijing now sees itself as \u201cthe one holding the cards in its struggle with Washington.\u201d He said Trump has made it clear he wants a \u201cheadline-grabbing deal\u201d with Xi, \u201cso rejecting a U.S. demand to stop buying oil from Iran or Russia is probably not seen as a deal\u2011breaker, even if it generates friction and a delay.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing to buy oil from Russia preserves Xi\u2019s \u201cstrategic solidarity\u201d<\/a> with Russian President Vladimir Putin and significantly reduces the economic costs for China, Russel said. <\/p>\n \u201cBeijing simply can\u2019t afford to walk away from the oil from Russia and Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s too important a strategic energy supply, and Beijing is buying it at fire\u2011sale prices.\u201d <\/p>\n China depends on oil from Russia and Iran<\/p>\n A 2024 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 80% to 90% of the oil exported by Iran went to China. The Chinese economy benefits from the more than 1 million barrels of Iranian oil it imports per day.<\/p>\n After the Iranian parliament floated a plan to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in June following U.S. strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, China spoke out against closing the critical oil transit route. <\/p>\n China also is an important customer for Russia, but is second to India in buying Russian seaborne crude oil exports. In April, Chinese imports of Russian oil rose 20% over the previous month to more than 1.3 million barrels per day, according to the KSE Institute, an analytical center at the Kyiv School of Economics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An oil tanker is moored at the Sheskharis complex, part of Chernomortransneft JSC, a subsidiary of Transneft PJSC, in Novorossiysk, Russia, on Oct. 11, 2022, one of the largest facilities for oil and petroleum products in southern Russia. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n An oil tanker is moored at the Sheskharis complex, part of Chernomortransneft JSC, a subsidiary of Transneft PJSC, in Novorossiysk, Russia, on Oct. 11, 2022, one of the largest facilities for oil and petroleum products in southern Russia. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n This past week, Trump said the U.S. will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India<\/a>, plus an additional import tax because of India\u2019s purchasing of Russian oil.<\/a> India\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Friday its relationship with Russia was \u201csteady and time-tested.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and a top policy adviser, said Trump has been clear that it is \u201cnot acceptable\u201d for India to continue financing the Ukraine war by purchasing oil from Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil,\u201d Miller said on Fox News Channel\u2019s \u201cSunday Morning Futures.\u201d He said the U.S. needs \u201cto get real about dealing with the financing of this war.\u201d<\/p>\n Congress demands action<\/p>\n Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is pushing for sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its financial backers. In April, he introduced a bill that would authorize the president to impose tariffs as high as 500% not only on Russia but on any country that \u201cknowingly\u201d buys oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products or petrochemical products from Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of this legislation is to break the cycle of China \u2014 a communist dictatorship \u2014 buying oil below market price from Putin\u2019s Russia, which empowers his war machine to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,\u201d Graham said in a June statement.<\/p>\n The bill has 84 co-sponsors in the 100-seat Senate. A corresponding House version has been introduced, also with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n Republicans say they stand ready to move on the sanctions legislation if Trump asks them to do so, but the bill is on hold for now. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt and Rajesh Roy in New Delhi and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. and Chinese officials may be able to settle many of their differences to reach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[11410,3801,51,1395,7684,96551,32,26934,115147,4179,5212,3058,774,47778,285,332,7686,87482,33527,5214,49,5213,333,10673,263,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-316323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-china-government","13":"tag-danny-russel","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-energy-industry","16":"tag-gabriel-wildau","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-government-policy","19":"tag-international-trade","20":"tag-iran","21":"tag-lindsey-graham","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-scott-bessent","25":"tag-scott-kennedy","26":"tag-stephen-miller","27":"tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-government","30":"tag-vladimir-putin","31":"tag-washington-news","32":"tag-world-news","33":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114968749930490258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n