Both Reuters and the New York Times reported Aug. 21 that China will not participate or bow to the “destroy the economy” sanctions which the Trump Administration plans to put on Iran. The Times report opined that Beijing is confident it can refuse the economic warfare, and that it reads the war on Iran as an indicator of American weakness. The paper quotes Wu Xinbo, a leading American studies expert at Fudan University, and advisor to the Foreign Ministry: “This threat reveals how desperate the Trump Administration has become on the issue of Iran. They issue this threat, not because they think it is workable, but because they have no other options.” China has sufficient reserves of oil, has prohibited its refiners by law from avoiding oil exports from Iran to comply with U.S. sanctions, and has the leverage, already tested, of its critical minerals exports to America.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian was asked specifically about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s latest hyperbolic comments on the coming destruction of Iran’s economy. Lin responded that “China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the UN Security Council,”
