The U.S. Commerce Department has blacklisted five Chinese companies for allegedly helping Russia’s military, forbidding U.S. companies from doing any business with them.
“Commerce officials said the companies had supplied items to Russian entities of concern before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion and ‘continue to contract to supply’ sanctioned Russian entities. They didn’t provide details on the technology involved,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The move, effective Tuesday, marks the first time U.S. officials have taken action against Chinese companies for allegedly supporting Russia in the war. It also comes as U.S. officials and others have continued to say that China has generally not sought to help Russia militarily.”
On Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed that China still has not acted to support Russia “at scale.”
“For us, the number-one priority with respect to China, when it comes to the war in Ukraine, is that China not become militarily supportive of Russia through the provision of equipment. Number two is that they not engage in wholesale or systematic undermining or evasion of U.S. sanctions,” Sullivan said.
“And on both of those, thus far, we have not seen China act in a way inconsistent with those two principles and certainly not at scale with respect to the economic relationship,” he continued.
It should be noted that since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, China has drastically increased its purchase of Russian oil and has become the top buyer of Russian energy exports, according to a report from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“Fossil fuel exports are a key enabler of Russia’s military buildup and brutal aggression against Ukraine,” the report states. “Russia earned EUR 93 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war (February 24 to June 3). The EU imported 61% of this, worth approximately 57 billion EUR.”
“The largest importers were China (EUR12.6bln), Germany (EUR12.1bln), Italy (EUR7.8bln), Netherlands (EUR7.8bln), Turkey (EUR6.7bln), Poland (EUR4.4bln), France (EUR4.3bln) and India (EUR3.4bln),” the report adds.
