On January 12, 2012, People’s Daily published an article titled “It Is Impossible for China to Stop Buying Oil from Iran.” The article lists four reasons not to participate in the U.S. initiated economic sanctions against Iran: 1) it is the U.S. decision to step up the economic sanctions against Iran, not a UN Security Council resolution; 2) tightening economic sanctions against Iran will only fuel tensions in the Gulf region; 3) participating in the economic sanctions against Iran will seriously damage China’s economic, strategic and other interests; 4) in the past, many U.S. initiated economic sanctions caused serious humanitarian disasters.
“Getting involved in sanctions against Iran would greatly undermine China’s economic, strategic, and other interests. With regard to economic interests, Iran is an important source of Chinese oil imports and an important market for Chinese consumer goods, capital, equipment exports, and overseas project contracts. Trade between the two countries reached US$29.4 billion in 2010 and jumped to US$41 billion in the first 11 months of 2011, representing a 55.8 percent increase.”
Source: People’s Daily, January 12, 2012
http://energy.people.com.cn/GB/16863152.html