New Xiland

🇨🇳 🇳🇿 Sceptic of the anti-China narrative.

[New Xiland @newxiland]

Lest we forget the importance of an independent foreign policy that doesn’t align us with a particular bloc #nzpol

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@AndyBxxx Because Australia is not free of US interference- they found the limit of their sovereignty under the Whitlam government in 1975

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

I never want to hear another American compare their media's malpractice to North Korean propaganda ever again. Westerners are more aggressively propagandized than any other population on earth.

[Anthony @Catholicizm1]

This is an amazing clip. The terror once she realizes she was live.

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@nypost Why is it sickening? In a just world that’s where the real one would be

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@AndyBxxx Because it’s all a con job in the end. You can choose Pepsi or Coke and it all tastes like shite

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@AmbChina2NZ Farewell - you were a great Ambassador and an excellent communicator. Sad to see you go

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@RepPatHarrigan You’re not wanted in China. Fuck off

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@JoshJPhilipp Headscratchingly silly statements by you - the “CCP” are simultaneously eradicating Uyghur culture as well as promoting it. The world knows what a real genocide is by looking at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians - not the stank you’re spittin’

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@Coinulaire @AndyBxxx @ChinaSelect @Starbucks There never was a genocide in Xinjiang but a Chinese response to Salafist fundamentalism creeping into the region causing destabilisation, terrorism and murder.

[Andy Boreham 安柏然 @AndyBxxx]

@ChinaSelect @Starbucks ⚠️DISINFORMATION⚠️

There is not, and never was, a genocide in Xinjiang. This conspiracy theory has been concocted by Western powers because of Xinjiang's strategic importance, largely based on its geographical location bordering a handful of countries.

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@LBC @chungchingkwong The only thing more pathetic than a self hating Chinese is one who aligned with christofascists and western forces only to now live in exile

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@XVanFleet Get over yourself. Nothing more pitiful than a self hating Chinese

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@AndyBxxx @MrKRudd He is a very disappointing figure these days. Not a patch on Paul Keating

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@jaynordlinger Nothing more than a fundamentalist Christian lunatic who was sold a lie by his cia handlers

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@RLHeinrichs You’re sticking up for your vested interests because If they did visit it’d reveal what a fraud people like you are

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@carlworker “Tibetan advocacy group” based in Washington DC and its main funding source is the US State Department

[Carl Worker @carlworker]

And NZ media picked it up uncritically, as all too often.

[New Xiland @newxiland]

@NikkiHaley More utter bullshit from that self hating Indian Nimarata Randhawa

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

What China just did with the blocking statutes against U.S. extraterritorial sanctions sets quite a major precedent, probably the financial equivalent of what happened with rare earths last year (in the sense that this is China taking a major step to push back against a U.S. hostile measure as opposed to taking it on the chin).

It's a little complex but, to start with, what many people ignore (and will probably be surprised by) is that - by and large - Chinese companies and financial institutions have largely complied with extraterritorial U.S. sanctions.

Anecdotal story on this: I know for a fact, because I personally know the person, that a very famous guy (whose name I won't reveal but that everyone of you would know) sanctioned by the U.S. was in China recently and tried to exchange money at the counter of a random Chinese bank. Just simply exchange dollars for a Chinese yuan, in mainland China. And he was refused, because he is sanctioned by the U.S. - despite the fact that China as a country has absolutely no problem with the person.

This goes to illustrate just how much goodwill China extended to the U.S. on this - a Chinese bank, in China, refusing to serve someone China has no problem with, just to comply with U.S. extraterritorial sanctions.

It also goes to illustrate why this blocking order marks such a sharp departure.

What triggered it is not new sanctions by the U.S. but recent efforts under the so-called "Operation Economic Fury" to dramatically ramp up enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran.

The U.S. notably issued at the end of April alerts to financial institutions worldwide - including in China - on "the sanctions risks associated with independent 'teapot' oil refineries in China, primarily in Shandong Province, given their continued role in importing and refining Iranian crude oil" (https://t.co/LkHFCKdY5c)

Even more importantly, they also specifically went after Hengli Petrochemical Dalian (https://t.co/y2iGTbiu7R), one of China's largest private refineries, with 400,000 barrels per day capacity and a parent company (the Hengli Group) that's a Fortune Global 500 company.

In effect, what the U.S. extraterritorial sanctions mean is that Hengli - and all other Chinese 'teapot' oil refineries being targeted - is cut off from the dollar system, and any bank, insurer, or trading partner anywhere in the world - including in China - that deals with them risks being cut off too. Which is obviously a major hostile move by the U.S. against China (and, of course, Iran).

Except that China, this time around, is not having it.

Since 2021 they've had regulations ("Measures to prevent the improper extraterritorial application of foreign laws and measures", https://t.co/ENBSJBVor1) that gives the Chinese government power to formally prohibit compliance with foreign sanctions, and that, since this April (https://t.co/82yw0izC6z) are also extraterritorial in nature.

In effect what these regulations - and their April addendum - say is that if you comply with U.S. extraterritorial sanctions by cutting off a Chinese company, you are violating Chinese law. Any entity - Chinese or foreign - that refuses to deal with a sanctioned Chinese company because Washington told them to can be sued in Chinese courts, fined by MOFCOM, and since April, placed on a 'Malicious Entity List' with asset freezes and trade restrictions.

In a nutshell on one side you have the U.S. saying "cut them off or we cut you off" and now China says "well, if you do cut us off we're going to be real nasty with you, in China and potentially beyond."

These regulations were - until yesterday - purely theoretical: they've never actually been applied. But, yesterday, China's MOFCOM made it crystal clear this time is different: they used a statement with a triple negative, saying the U.S. sanctions "shall not be recognized, shall not be enforced, shall not be complied with" ("不得承认、不得执行、不得遵守", https://t.co/3NlBy7I1jL).

In effect you now have companies that are in the middle of this - for instance financial institutions serving Hengli - caught in quite a bind: face U.S. or Chinese hostility. It's a no-win, they need to choose a camp on this.

Concretely speaking, given that the overwhelming majority of companies affected are operating inside China, they'll obviously choose the China side.

The real question therefore is: Is the U.S. ready to act on its threat and cut off Chinese banks or other institutions that keep servicing these refineries?

Because that probably means sanctioning major Chinese financial institutions, which is a whole different level of escalation. The moment the U.S. designates a major Chinese bank for dealing with Hengli, this stops being about Iranian oil and becomes a direct financial confrontation between the two largest economies on earth, which is a much bigger deal with probable consequences for the entire global financial system.

Or will the U.S. back off, meaning China would have effectively caught their bluff, showing that extraterritorial sanctions are a lot of bark but not a lot of bite?

We'll know in the next couple of weeks I guess.

One thing is sure though: whatever happens with these refineries, the broader damage is done. China used to extend remarkable goodwill on sanctions compliance - voluntarily cooperating with extraterritorial sanctions inside its own borders even though it had no legal obligation to respect them. That goodwill has been spent.

And, from a U.S. standpoint, a China with less goodwill vis a vis U.S. financial hegemony is undoubtedly a far bigger issue than a few teapot refineries buying Iranian oil.

[Daniel Dumbrill @DanielDumbrill]

This is genuinely hilarious, and peak on-brand American tone-deafness.

The United States is now asking China, the same China it has spent years trying to economically isolate, sanction, and technologically contain, to help it economically isolate & sanction one of China’s own partners: Iran.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is telling Beijing to “get with the programme” and join Washington’s “most crushing economic operation” against Iran. “You are either with us or against us.” China is Iran’s largest oil customer. And yet America expects Beijing to help crush Tehran’s economy.

This is the same America that put Huawei on the Entity List, expanded the Foreign Direct Product Rule to strangle its supply chain, pressured allies to ban it from 5G, restricted advanced chips and manufacturing equipment, targeted DJI and Chinese drones, and placed hundreds of Chinese companies under export controls, all while talking about maintaining technological superiority and reducing economic dependence on China. That's the kind of "with us" they were hoping China would continue playing along with.

After years of trying to isolate China, they now want China’s help isolating China’s ally.

The lack of self-awareness is almost impressive.

Still, it’s deeply satisfying to finally see meaningful pushback against the economic tools that have long been used to pressure, constrain, and punish countries around the world.