[BEIJING] Beijing chided the use of “economic pressure” on Wednesday (Sep 10) after US President Donald Trump suggested he would hike tariffs on buyers of Russian oil to stifle Moscow’s funding for its war in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, in talks between US and European Union officials, Trump suggested he was willing to broaden tariffs on Russian oil buyers such as China and India – if the EU takes similar moves, a US official told AFP.
Dialing in for discussions, Trump raised the possibility of tariffs between 50 per cent and 100 per cent, said the official, who was not authorised to discuss these details publicly.
“We firmly oppose the practice of constantly dragging China into the issue, and we firmly oppose the imposition of so-called economic pressure on China,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press briefing on Wednesday.
“China is neither the creator of this crisis nor a party to it,” he said.
Beijing and Moscow are key trading partners, and China has never denounced Russia’s war, nor called for it to withdraw its troops.
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Beijing insists it is a neutral party, regularly calling for an end to the fighting while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.
In talks ahead of China’s massive military parade this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level”. AFP
