China will defend legitimate Iran ties during Biden era: Spokesman
The Chinese government will continue to defend its growing economic and business ties with Iran despite trade problems with the incumbent US administration of Joe Biden, says a commerce ministry spokesman in Beijing.
Gao Feng said on Thursday that China’s policy is to safeguard a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the JCPOA, while defending legitimate Sino-Iran relations.
Feng made the comments in response to a media inquiry suggesting that Beijing had received no notices from Washington on Iran oil sanctions.
The question came after reports published earlier this month showed that Chinese private refiners have been importing record volumes of crude from Iran.
The alleged increase in Iranian oil shipments in January and February, which has no official record in the Chinese customs office, come nearly three years after former US president Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA and imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran’s sales of crude.
The bans affected crude supplies to Asia and especially to China as the top customer of Iranian crude.
Experts believe China has “indirectly” increased oil imports from Iran on the assumption that a Biden administration would gradually ease the sanctions in line with his policy to rejoin the JCPOA.
Tanker tracker Petro-Logistics said on Tuesday that Iran has been shipping larger than expected volumes of crude in March after reported surges in shipments to China in January and February.
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