STOCKHOLM, Aug 3 (RTSG) – Trade negotiators have ended two days of talks in Stockholm with an extra flash-point: Washington’s demand that Beijing stop importing oil from Russia and Iran or face a 100 percent tariff.
China’s Foreign Ministry replied on X that it would “always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,” adding that “coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything.” China also stated that the U.S. must stop shifting blame on the Ukraine war, that the United States does not care about maintaining peace but “rather using this council to attack and suppress other countries” all to serve their own agenda.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted after the session that “the Chinese take their sovereignty very seriously,” quipping that, if forced, “they would like to pay a 100 percent tariff.” Even so, he said, “I believe we have the makings of a deal.”
Washington argues that cutting China off from discounted Russian and Iranian crude would choke funding for Moscow’s war on Ukraine and Tehran’s regional militias. Beijing replies that these cheap barrels are vital to its energy security and insists trade talks should not be tied to geopolitical pressure. The standoff comes just as both capitals have been sounding upbeat about easing the punitive tariffs imposed since 2018.
Analysts doubt President Donald Trump will follow through with the full levy. Gabriel Wildau of Teneo warns it could “derail all the recent progress” toward a possible summit with Xi Jinping in the autumn. Tu Xinquan of UIBE’s WTO Institute says Beijing remembers earlier U.S. threats that fizzled, and is “prepared to fight to the end” if new duties appear.
China’s Oil Imports by the Numbers
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates China now buys up to 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports—more than 1 million barrels a day—and about 1.3 million barrels from Russia, making it Moscow’s second-largest customer after India.
The United States has been ramping up pressure on both Russia and Iran, but especially on the latter. The U.S. has even struck Iranian targets militarily in an effort to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program, entering the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
Hill pressure builds
Senator Lindsey Graham is pushing legislation that would let the president impose tariffs of up to 500 percent on any country that knowingly buys Russian hydrocarbons. His bill has 84 cosponsors in the Senate, and a similar House measure also enjoys broad bipartisan support, though it is currently on hold at the White House’s request while negotiations continue.
Washington’s tariff threat also rides on years of U.S. alarm over Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Senior U.S. officials have urged governments to steer clear of BRI projects, saying China uses infrastructure loans to build ‘coercive leverage’ abroad and undercut U.S. influence. However, polling published in 2025 shows that, in regions such as Hispanoamérica and Africa, and in countries from Pakistan to Indonesia (with South Korea, India, Japan, and a few others as notable exceptions), China enjoys greater support and is viewed more positively than the United States. This contradicts the image the U.S. has put forward of China as a predatory rather than generative country on the world stage.
The U.S. government sees China’s BRI as an economic threat as well as a strategic military threat. Back in 2024, General Richardson, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, warned that the $1.3 billion Chinese-built deep-water port at Chancay, Peru, could host People’s Liberation Army warships once it opens this November. They cited similar concerns over earlier Chinese port proposals near Argentina’s Strait of Magellan. Beijing counters that BRI projects are strictly commercial and mutually beneficial, yet the Pentagon opposes what they claim is a pattern of strategic footholds from South America to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota harbor, where a Chinese firm took control. However, again, more nuance arises given that the United States deploys around 170,000 active-duty service members overseas, spread across more than 750 military installations in over 80 countries. This dwarfs China’s military presence worldwide hundreds of times over.
Beijing’s recent adamant refusal to bend the knee in oil coincides with Washington’s urging of allies Japan and Australia to clarify how they would help in any Taiwan conflict, pushing for a stronger united front against China amongst their Indo-Pacific allies. For Chinese negotiators, the message remains unchanged: energy security and foreign policy independence are not for sale, tariff threat or no tariff threat.
Source: ABC News
Written by Louis, Edited by Seraph
