Financial clashes avoided by US sanctions waiver

BEIJING -- Experts in Beijing have responded to a US State Department decision to exempt China from sanctions over imports of Iranian oil, saying the move avoids a financial clash between China and the United States.

However, they have also warned that worry will return after the 180-day exemption ends.

Under America's National Defense Authorization Act signed late last year, the foreign financial institutions of governments who continue to purchase Iranian crude oil after June 28 will be denied access to the US financial market.

However, the United States on Thursday exempted China from the sanctions hours before a deadline as the country had "significantly reduced" its crude oil purchases from the Islamic republic.

"It probably only means the sanctions have been delayed, because no country can replace Iran to provide over 20 million tonnes of crude oil every year to China," said Qu Xing, head of the China Institute of International Studies.

The European Union and Republic of Korea have announced that they will suspend importing oil from Iran, while Iran's major importers have also significantly reduced oil imports.

China is Iran's third-largest oil importer, with a total of 27 million tonnes of the resource imported from the country in 2011. If the sanctions take effect in China, the world's second-largest economy will likely suffer tremendous loss.

However, the United States will fare poorly if sanctions are imposed against China's financial institutions, as the two economies are highly inter-dependent, with a two-way trade volume of 446.7 billion US dollars last year.

In addition, the two countries have significant two-way financial investment. The top US banks all own equities in Chinese banks, while Chinese financial institutions have also invested heavily in US corporate bonds and equities.

As US financial businesses in China far outnumber those of China in the United States, the latter will face unaffordable loss if the former takes countermeasures against US financial sanctions, experts are warning.

"It will be a lose-lose situation if the United States imposes sanctions against China," said Qu.

China's government has made a point of always opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and being against any countries in the Middle East, including Iran, developing nuclear arsenals. The country has unswervingly insisted on solving Iranian nuclear tensions through dialogue and cooperation. In the meantime, China has stressed that it always opposes sanctions imposed unilaterally.

Iran has an oil production capacity of 4 million barrels per day, about 5 percent of the world's total output. Sanctions against Iran are likely to not only affect global oil supplies, but also trigger violent fluctuation in oil prices.

Mei Xinyu, a research fellow from China's Ministry of Commerce, said China imports oil from Iran through normal channels and does so in a transparent and legitimate way, without violating any United Nations Security Council resolutions.

"The United States should take a constructive attitude toward the Iranian nuclear issue," according to Mei.