China and Russia have not gotten as close over the past year as many observers had predicted. Since its invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has imported only a small amount of non-Russian energy. The Hong Kong newspaper The South China Morning Post writes about it.
A few weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced a “partnership without borders” in Beijing. In the months that followed, China refused to speak out against a Russian invasion, and in March 2023, a year after the invasion, Xi paid a state visit to “his good friend” Putin.
This strongly suggested that Beijing and Moscow were visiting each other more and more after the West severed almost all ties with Russia. But if you look at the numbers, you’ll see that the partnership remains quite modest in economic terms. The South China Morning Post writes it based on a study by the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI).
No more long-term contracts
Before the invasion, China got about 14% of its oil and gas from Russia, but that percentage is now between 16 and 17%. And also significant: since the beginning of the war, China has not signed long-term contracts, invested in Russian oil and gas fields, or given the green light for new pipelines.
“While China got about 14 percent of its oil and gas from Russia before the invasion, that percentage is now between 16 and 17 percent.”
Beijing has also not taken out insurance for Russian tankers, as observers had predicted after Western insurance companies massively withdrew from the Russian market.
Fear of “secondary sanctions”
According to the Swedish UI Institute, China “is trying to strike a balance between supporting its strategic partner Russia” and “looking after its own interests, including trade with Western partners”. The threat of “secondary sanctions” may play a role, with Europe and the United States also imposing sanctions on third countries that supply certain products to Russia.
China is by far the largest buyer of Russian energy and the largest foreign owner of oil and gas fields in the country. ‘But’, writes the Hong Kong newspaper, ‘this has more to do with the withdrawal of all Western companies than with the expansion of Chinese activities’.
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
