China warns US against disrupting trade ties with Russia over sanctions bill

ISTANBUL

China on Thursday warned against any attempt to disrupt its economic and trade relations with Russia, after a US lawmaker said President Donald Trump had “greenlit” a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting Moscow.

Beijing “always opposes illicit and unilateral sanctions,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in the Chinese capital.

She stressed that China’s normal economic and trade relations with Russia are legitimate and should not be interfered with.

“The normal economic and trade ties with Russia do not target third parties and should not be disrupted or affected,” Mao said.

US Senator Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that President Trump had approved a bipartisan sanctions bill aimed at Russia.

“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator Blumenthal and many others,” Graham wrote on the US social media company X.

Graham said the proposed legislation would allow Trump to “punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil,” calling the timing “well-placed” as “Ukraine is making concessions for peace.”

“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing” for Moscow amid the Russia-Ukraine war, he added.

According to Russian estimates, China’s trade volume with Russia is expected to exceed $220 billion in 2025, and the growing economic ties have drawn criticism from Western countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Beijing has repeatedly rejected those criticisms, maintaining that its relations with Moscow are based on mutual benefit and do not violate international law.

Separately, Mao also responded to remarks by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk regarding a US military operation in Venezuela.

Mao said China “consistently opposes politicizing and instrumentalizing human rights,” adding that Beijing rejects the selective application of international law.

“China opposes applying international law when it suits one’s interests and discarding it otherwise, and opposes using human rights as a pretext to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” she said.

Turk had said the US military operation in Venezuela undermined a fundamental principle of international law, which prohibits states from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state.