After Western nations hit Russia with unprecedented economic and financial sanctions over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, China has announced that it won’t participate in unilateral sanctions. Instead, the country “will continue to maintain normal economic, trade and financial exchanges with relevant parties,” Guo Shuqing, the head of China’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said in a statement quoted by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
China is Russia’s most important trading partner, accounting for 13 percent of the country’s exports in 2019. The world’s largest exporter is even more important as a supplier of goods for Russia, accounting for 22 percent of the country’s goods imports in the same year.
Among Russia’s eight most important import partners, China and Belarus are the only two countries not participating in the wide-ranging sanctions against the country, after South Korea announced that it would join Western countries in banning Russian banks from the SWIFT network and “actively participate in the international community's efforts for a peaceful resolution of the situation.”
