By Ilan Berman
After early signs it might try to exert pressure on Iran, China seems to be easing up. Unfortunately for the West, all roads lead through Beijing.
So much for Chinese cooperation on Iran, it would seem. Just a few months ago, the Chinese government seemed to be on track for a very public divorce from its third largest energy supplier. But now, China appears to be reverting to type.
In April, China’s imports of Iranian crude nearly doubled, surging some 48 percent to reach 1.6 metric tons. That spike effectively reverses the trend seen since this winter, in which China – leery of mounting Western economic pressure against Iran and attendant penalties on its energy clients – had begun to trim its energy commerce with the Islamic Republic. Nor does it seem to be an anomaly; experts predict that Iran’s oil exports to China will return to regular levels in coming months, striking a significant blow to U.S. and European efforts to isolate Iran in the process.
Crude purchases aren’t the only way Beijing is helping Tehran to weather Western sanctions. In recent weeks, as U.S. and European sanctions on Iran have begun to bite in earnest, China’s government has stepped into the void left by fleeing foreign partners. China’s shippers, for example, have capitalized on the lack of market competition to do a thriving business carrying Iranian oil. Chinese insurers, meanwhile, increasingly have supplanted skittish Western underwriters and guaranteed Iran’s foreign crude export shipments.
Read the full story at The Diplomat