China cannot stop buying Iranian oil

It is said that the United States wants China to cooperate with it through stopping buying oil from Iran, so as to tighten sanctions against Iran. However, China has no reason to blindly follow the economic sanctions against Iran initiated by the United States, no matter which side is considered. Particularly, it is impossible for China to stop buying Iranian oil.

Firstly, the economic sanctions against Iran are launched by the United States but not the U.N. The U.S. does not mean the international community. China is an independent and sovereign state and shall not follow the U.S.'s pace blindly. All economic and trade exchanges between China and Iran are legal transactions based on the international norms and have no violations of the law.

Secondly, China's foreign policies focus on pursuing peace and development, hope to maintain world peace and create a good environment for the economic development of China and the world. The tightening of economic sanctions against Iran can only exacerbate the already tense situation in the Gulf region, promote a sharp increase in the risk of war and add uncertainty to the world economy shrouded in shadow of the U.S. and European sovereign debt crisis and the emerging market economy risks. As a large and responsible country in the international community, China shall not and cannot take this dangerous decision.

The United States, a country that has used the most economic sanctions in the world since the 20th century, needs to deeply reflect upon whether it has abused the measure of economic sanctions excessively. 77 among the 116 international economic sanctions launched from 1914 to 1990 were led by the U.S.; and in the 80 or more sanction cases from the end of the Cold War to 2007, the U.S. had participated in more than 60 of them, involving more than half of the world's population.

Thirdly, participation in economic sanctions against Iran will damage China's own economic and strategic interests seriously. Just as far as economic interests are concerned, Iran is China's important sources of oil imports as well as important market of Chinese consumption goods, capital equipment exports and overseas project contracting.

Facts have already proved that a number of economic sanctions initiated by the U.S. are always not conducive to achieving its stated purposes but will cause serious humanitarian disasters. The most typical economic sanction after the Cold War is that one against Iraq led by the U.S. and passed and implemented by the U.N. during 1991 and 2003, during which, the Iraqi people had suffered grave humanitarian disasters.

Since the founding of New China, the U.S. had implemented a comprehensive trade embargo on China and had not announced the cancellation until Richard Nixon's China visit in 1972. The Chinese people know exactly the feel of the humanitarian suffering caused by sanctions, so they cannot agree to impose the same suffering on innocent people of other countries.