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The Great China Shell Game
The U.S. Must Stop Playing Sanctions Whack-A-Mole with the CCP
The larger Chinese banks, in response to stern U.S. warnings, have this year been exiting transactions involving Russia.
Are America’s sanctions efforts finally working?
No. Beijing is merely shifting transactions to smaller banks and non-banking channels. China, to help Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, is employing a decades-old stratagem: the shell game.
At best, America’s sanctions are crimping the fast-growing China-Russia trade, not ending it.
Beijing, Moscow’s “no-limits” partner, has provided across-the-board support for the Russian war effort since the start of the conflict. In recent months, China has been supplying machine tools, semiconductors, and other dual-use items. It has also helped out with weapons technology and satellite imagery. Reporting from last year shows that Chinese parties were selling ammunition in large quantities.
Moreover, China has lent bank support. Now, however, Chinese banking institutions have become wary of working with Russia, especially since March. “Concern over the possibility of sanctions,” Reuters reported in June, “has already caused China’s big banks to throttle payments for cross-border transactions involving Russians, or pull back from any involvement altogether.”
