• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 1 hour GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 8 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 10 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 23 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 5 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Tim Daiss

Tim Daiss

I'm an oil markets analyst, journalist and author that has been working out of the Asia-Pacific region for 12 years. I’ve covered oil, energy markets…

More Info

Premium Content

China Sticks Up For Iran As Geopolitical Pressure Mounts

Amid the geopolitical quagmire among Iran, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. over a number of issues ranging from Tehran's nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missile program and its regional hegemony overtures which have Riyadh scrambling for a response, China is joining the fray.

Yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the speaker of Iran’s parliament that China’s desire to develop close ties with Iran will remain unchanged, regardless of the international situation. Xi’s remarks came just one day before the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to China to drum up support since several western powers have taken a harder line against the young prince over his alleged involvement in the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Xi met Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday and added that the two countries had a long friendship and shared a long-tested mutual trust. “No matter how the international and regional situation changes, China’s resolve to develop a comprehensive strategic partnership with Iran will remain unchanged,” Xi was quoted a saying in comments published the next day by China’s Foreign Ministry. China and Iran should further deepen strategic mutual trust and continue to support each other on core interests and major concerns, Xi added.

China’s geopolitical advantage

Beijing is able to court both Iran and Saudi Arabia at the same, something the U.S. is unable to do since American foreign policy is often dictated by human rights concerns. China, however, prides itself on not taking sides in domestic politics of other nations, even if those nations have a dismal human rights history. A recent example of this is China’s support of Sudan. According to Amnesty International, systematic human rights abuses have occurred in Sudan, including killing, torture, rape, looting and destroying of property by all parties involved in the conflict, but primarily by the Sudanese government and government-backed Janjawid militia. Related: An Underestimated Niche In Oil & Gas

More than a decade ago, western oil companies pulled out of Sudan under pressure from human rights organizations, but China remained, continuing to support the government as well as building the country’s oil infrastructure. A Bookings Institute report at the time said that “Chinese companies have turned a blind eye to the brutal way in which Sudan forced 200,000 to 300,000 of its citizens from oil-rich lands without compensation. Nor have these companies shown concern that Sudan uses oil revenue to purchase arms for its wars against its black African population.” 

Saudi complications

Now, however, the higher moral ground that the U.S. has taken as part of its foreign policy (which peaked under President Obama) has taken a hit due to the decades-long alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The killing of Khashoggi in October, likely at the hands of Saudi operatives and also likely under the direction or at least acknowledgment of MbS, complicates the situation. Related: The Ultimate Tool To Prop Up Oil Prices

While members in both the House and Senate, both Demarcates and Republicans, have called for tougher sanctions against Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s killing, President Trump has resisted. For Trump it’s a no-win situation, the President needs Saudi assurances to help keep a lid on global oil prices, particularly as the 20202 presidential election nears. However, resisting calls from both sides of the aisle in Congress to take a tougher stance against Saudi Arabia has also damaged the president’s standing even more among human rights advocates and even those within his own party who largely support the president on other issues, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Going forward, China will continue to play a delicate balancing act by befriending both Iran and Saudi Arabia to help keep oil imports from both producers secure, though Iran's oil exports are already impacted by fresh US sanctions, but also to use a aambit against Washington. As U.S. resolve in the middle east wanes under first Obama’s and now Trump’s watch, Xi Jinping will be more than happy to position China as a new power broker in middle eastern affairs - albeit without the human rights attachment that Washington has to adhere to.

For Saudi Arabia, it will find a willing partner in China that will not only remain silent over human rights abuses but will criticize other nations for meddling, all the while enhancing its own geopolitical and energy security.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Lubos Kruzik on February 22 2019 said:
    When has ever the US adhere to human rights? What a joke!

    Saudi Arabia will move away from the US because the situation has changed regarding the oil trade. The US has schifted from a major customer to competitor.
  • Dara T on February 22 2019 said:
    "... American foreign policy is often dictated by human rights concerns." Are you joking??? America has coddled some of the worst human rights violators in history as long as they did America's bidding! Think Pinochet, Shah of Iran, current prince of Saudi Arabia, current leaders of Bahrain, even Saddam Hussein when he was fighting Iran!
  • Godfree Roberts on February 23 2019 said:
    'China that will not only remain silent over human rights abuses but will criticize other nations for meddling'??

    China leads the US in 26 of the 30 rights enumerated in the UN Declaration but it does not criticize other countries behavior or judge their domestic policies. China has ratified the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights while the US has refused to do so.

    On June 1, 2021, China will reach a human rights benchmark and everyone without exception will have a home, a job, plenty of food, education, safe streets, health and old age care. On that day there will be more poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China, largely because they have different human rights priorities.

    On that day China will assume leadership of the human rights dialog and reset the world’s priorities, a revolution that’s been brewing for some time.
  • r.j. sigmund on February 23 2019 said:
    i also gagged when i read that line about US foreign policy being dictated by human rights concerns...i actually quit reading there, btw, figuring the writer was completely out of touch with reality...
  • Jeffrey Pickett on June 22 2019 said:
    Seeing that the election of Trump temporarily halted the Obama/Clinton's decades old sellout of the US economy and technology to China and Iran this has caused the NWO President Geo Bush #1 so lovingly described, Favored Nation status and technology like Loral and personal servers with secrets in a pay to play called the "Foundation". Must be the Cultural Marxism Columbia School of Journalism.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News