China-Russia trade hits 2025 high as Trump hints at 25% tariff over oil imports

Bilateral trade between China and Russia reached its highest level of the year in July, with the latest customs data coming as US President Donald Trump has hinted that China could be next to join India in facing a 25 per cent punitive tariff over continued purchases of Russian oil.

Total trade between China and Russia stood at US$19.14 billion in July, up 8.7 per cent from June, according to figures from China’s General Administration of Customs released on Thursday. But that marked a 2.8 per cent decrease from a year earlier.

In the first seven months of 2025, total trade between China and Russia also fell 8 per cent, year on year, to US$125.8 billion.

China’s imports from Russia in July totalled US$10.1 billion, up 4.02 per cent from a year earlier. But in the same month, Chinese exports to the country dropped by 8.91 per cent, year on year, to US$9.1 billion.

Russia was one of China’s leading crude suppliers last year, shipping a record 108.5 million tonnes, or 19.6 per cent of its total oil imports, Chinese customs data showed.

However, oil deliveries in July fell compared with June – amounting to less than 4 million tonnes, according to figures from Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Chinese customs authorities are expected to release detailed oil-trade data from Russia on August 20.

For the first seven months of 2025, Russian tankers shipped 32 million tonnes to China – 4 million less than during the same period in 2024, according to the Ukrainian agency.

South China Morning Post