Xi Jinping, who has met with Vladimir Putin dozens of times, He has long been described as an old friend of the Chinese people (the highest honor for a foreigner in Mandarin), writes Guido Santeviche, a reporter from Beijing. The Kremlin leader participated in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing a few weeks ago, reinforcing the Beijing-Moscow axis that may not have been so strong in history. Now another sign of a compatibility of interests: China will not join the sanctions against Russia, said Guo Shuqing, head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the country’s banking regulator, adding that he believed the impact of the measures on China would be limited. Dragon Land criticizes what it describes as illegal and unilateral punishments. “We don’t agree with it,” he told a news conference.
We will not participate in such sanctions. we will continue He pointed out to maintain normal economic and trade exchange with relevant parties. China and Russia have become closer and closer in recent years, including as trading partners. Total trade between the two countries jumped 35.9% last year to a record $146.9 billion, according to Chinese customs data, with Russia serving as a major exporter of oil, gas, coal and agricultural commodities, with a trade surplus with China. Since the first sanctions in 2014, after Moscow’s decision to invade Crimea, bilateral trade has grown by more than 50% and China has become Russia’s top export destination.
By increasing sanctions against Russia, China can make up for it buy more. On the other hand, Russian oil and gas exports to China have steadily increased. Russia is Beijing’s second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, averaging 1.59 million barrels per day last year, or 15.5% of Chinese imports. About 40% of the supply flows through the 4,070-kilometre (2,540-mile) East Siberian East Pacific (ESPO) pipeline, which is backed by $50 billion in Chinese loans. Russia is also Beijing’s third largest supplier of gas, exporting 16.5 billion cubic meters of fuel to China in 2021, meeting about 5% of Chinese demand.
Supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline, which is not connected To Russia’s westbound pipeline network, which started at the end of 2019 and is expected to rise to 38 billion cubic meters annually by 2025, up from 10.5 billion cubic meters in 2021, less than a 30-year contract worth more than 400 billion dollar. Russia and China have just signed a project to build a second gas pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, with a capacity of 50 billion cubic meters per year, which will go from Mongolia to China. Russia is also the second largest supplier of coal to China.
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