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The Russian Federation is turning into a raw material appendage of China and its neighbor under sanctions is beneficial to it. But the PRC itself does not want to expose itself to secondary sanctions, which could hit its economy. Oleg Pendzin, executive director of the Economic Discussion Club, stated this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
“At the moment, the situation that exists in the sanctions restrictions of the Russian Federation is beneficial for China. Firstly, China is actively replacing European brands on the shelves of Russian supermarkets. China has almost completely monopolized the automobile market. China has found a fairly large market for its own products,” he said.
Among other things, the economist added, China is extremely interested in the raw materials supplied to it by the Russian Federation.
“If you look carefully at the geographical maps that are currently printed in the PRC, you will see that many territories of the Russian Federation have Chinese names. This is also not a distant goal for the PRC. Therefore, you need to understand how Winston Churchill once said about his own country: “Great Britain has no eternal friends and eternal enemies, it has eternal interests.” And based on this point of view, China clearly has its own interests. And in these interests, the Russian Federation acts as a market and a raw material appendage. So in this situation, it is along this path that cooperation will develop,” explained Pendzin.
Moreover, according to his data, in 2022 and part of 2023, the volume of foreign trade transactions between China and the Russian Federation increased by almost a third. It was 140 billion dollars, now it’s 200.
“But another thing you need to understand is that the volume of foreign trade transactions, for example, of the PRC and the European Union – 720 billion, the PRC and the USA – 680 billion. Therefore, when we talk about how ready China is to violate sanctions restrictions in order to fall under secondary sanctions , no – not ready. And if you carefully look at what comes from China to the Russian Federation, then those product items that are protected by licenses and patents issued in European countries and the USA do not go to the Russian Federation. Everything that, to one degree or another, will subsequently be exported to civilized countries will definitely not go to the Russian Federation. In this regard, the policy of differentiation is clearly visible – what is possible, what will not be problematic, what will not subsequently hit the Chinese economy, yes, it is supplied to the Russian Federation. Everything else is not. Therefore, relations between China and the Russian Federation clearly fall into the framework of China’s interests,” concluded Oleg Pendzin.
According to Bloomberg, Russian diamonds, propane-butane, the IT sector, as well as new restrictions on Belarus may be included in the 12th package of sanctions of the European Union. According to journalists, the EU is already discussing how stringent the new restrictions should be.
