(Original title: Not afraid of U.S. pressure, China is "reversing")

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According to Hong Kong's English-language media "South China Morning Post", despite continuous pressure from the United States, Russia was still China's largest crude oil supplier in September this year.

Data released by the General Administration of Customs of China on October 20 showed that China's crude oil imports from Russia increased by 4.3 percent in September to 828,7 million tons and imports amounted to $40.6 billion.This data shows that China is still willing to maintain trade ties with Russia despite geopolitical friction.

The data also showed that China has suspended U.S. crude oil purchases since June, but U.S. crude oil previously accounted for a small share of China's total imports.

With the progress of China-Russia cross-border pipeline projects and the continuous deepening of cooperation between the two countries, China's total imports of liquefied natural gas 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 imports increasing by about 73 times in September compared with the same period last year; imports from Brazil also rose sharply by 156%, broadening China's energy supply channels.

Russian Petroleum Port of St. Petersburg

¡°Increased purchases of crude oil from Russia are a gesture shown by China and a defiance before further negotiations with the United States,¡± said Xu Tianjin, a senior economist at the think tank of economists.

¡°I don¡¯t see any reason for China to give up Russian crude oil unless, for example, Trump is willing to remove all tariffs on China and lift sanctions on Chinese companies,¡± he added.

The Trump administration is still stepping up efforts to contain Russian energy revenue. Trump said on the 15th that Indian Prime Minister Modi has promised to stop purchasing Russian crude oil and said,"Now we will ask China to take the same action."

He then warned New Delhi that it would face "huge" tariffs if it continued to trade crude oil with Russia.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent also issued a warning during a meeting with Japan¡¯s finance minister, Katy Peres, in Washington last week, saying the Trump administration expects Japan to stop importing energy from Russia.

Regarding Trump's talk about China's purchase of Russian energy, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Cheng said on the 16th that China has repeatedly expressed its position on the issue, and that it is legitimate for China to carry out normal economic and trade energy cooperation with other countries in the world, including Russia.

Lin Jian emphasized that China has always adhered to an objective and fair position on the Ukraine crisis, which is open and aboveboard and obvious to all. "We firmly oppose the United States 'frequent use of China and resolutely oppose the indiscriminate imposition of illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against China. If China's legitimate rights and interests are damaged, China will resolutely oppose and firmly safeguard its own sovereign development and security interests."

Further reading:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister: How much oil China needs and how much Russia is prepared to supply

According to a report by Russia's Tass news agency on April 12, economists predict that as US President Trump provokes a "tariff war," US oil exports to China may decline rapidly in the next few months. In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Russia is ready to supply as much oil as possible to China.

"We are prepared to provide enough oil to meet China's needs," Rudenko said in an interview with TASS news agency. I believe that China will consider its own national interests first. If they need to buy oil, of course we will export oil to China, but it depends on the choice of our China friends. As much oil as China needs, we are prepared to supply as much oil as possible."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko Russian Foreign Ministry

TASS news agency said that from January to February this year, China imported 15.47 million tons of oil from Russia, a year-on-year decrease of 12.6%, but Russia is still the country that supplies the most oil to China. Russia is followed by Saudi Arabia, which exported 11.65 million tons of oil to China in two months, and Iraq ranked third with 10.3 million tons.

U.S. oil exports to China have been increasing in recent years. But economists predict that processing U.S. crude oil will be unprofitable for Chinese refineries after the Trump administration provoked a "tariff war", and U.S. oil exports to China may drop to zero in the coming months.

Bloomberg quoted data from data analysis firm Vortexa as saying that U.S. oil exports are not crucial to China. In the first few months of this year, the U.S. supplied only about 1% of China's total oil imports. Analysts predict that China may buy more oil from Middle Eastern countries such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates, or import more oil from countries such as Russia to fill the gap.

Since Trump signed the so-called "peer-to-peer tariff" executive order, he has repeatedly raised tariffs on China, so that the U.S. tariff rate on China has increased to 145%. Faced with unreasonable tariff repression by the U.S., China continued to counter, announcing a 125% tariff on all U.S. imported goods, while stating that it will no longer take into account the digital game on tariffs.

Boris Titov, Special Representative of the Russian President and Russian Chairman of the China-Russia Friendship, Peace and Development Committee, believes that in the face of Trump's tariff policy, the economic ties between Russia and China will become closer."On the one hand, China needs to find new markets to sell its goods. On the other hand, China also needs to replace U.S. supplies."

The assessment was also endorsed by Rudenko. Rudenko told TASS on the 13th: ¡°Collaboration in all fields and aspects is developing, so it is difficult to list specific areas of cooperation separately. However, I am confident that we have very good prospects for cooperation and our trade volume will reach a new record high.¡±

Chinese Flag and Russian Flag

Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in 2024, the trade volume between China and Russia will reach US$244.8195 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%, setting a new historical record again. Among them, Russia's exports to China were basically the same as the previous year, at US$129.3204 billion; China's exports to Russia increased by 4.1% to US$115.4992 billion.