On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that she doesn’t see China “undermining the impact of our sanctions” on Russia and it’s “natural” that China would have an incentive to boost its purchases of Russian oil. Yellen also said that “We would like to see them do more to take advantage of their relationship with Russia, to try to bring about a diplomatic end to this war.”
Yellen said, “I don’t see China at this point as undermining the impact of our sanctions. As far as I can tell, Chinese financial institutions are avoiding — they very much value their access to the U.S. financial system…their economic relations with the United States and Europe, and I’m not seeing them as taking steps to undermine sanctions. We’ve made clear that that would be unacceptable to us, and made clear that it would be unacceptable to help Russia add to its stock of arms to conduct this war. We would like to see them do more to take advantage of their relationship with Russia, to try to bring about a diplomatic end to this war.”
Host David Westin then asked, “Madam Secretary, help me understand this a little bit. Because you say you don’t see any indication that they’re undermining it. At the same time, we had a senior Chinese government official this week say, we really do regard Russia as our friends, and as proof of that, our trade with Russia has actually increased by 20% so far in 2022. Doesn’t that undermine the sanctions?”
Yellen answered, “Well, we haven’t sanctioned Chinese trade with Russia. And it’s natural that, for example, with the price that Russian oil is receiving in the global market, it’s below the price of Brent, that there would be some incentive for China or other purchasers to want to pick up their purchases. So, I don’t know if that’s happening, but it could be happening. But that, I wouldn’t regard as a violation of our sanctions.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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