Tag: Embargoes and Sanctions

U.S. Warns China Over Iranian Oil as Sanctions Fight Intensifies

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The United States on Monday urged China to push Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and said that its purchases of Iranian oil amounted to funding global terrorism, delivering a stern rebuke ahead of President Trump’s meeting in Beijing this month with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The warning came from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will be participating in the high-stakes meetings. Mr. Bessent has been leading an aggressive campaign to cripple Iran’s economy with a blitz of new sanctions. He has also been working to devise ways…

Treasury Issues More Sanctions on Iranian Oil Exports

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The Trump administration on Tuesday ratcheted up economic pressure on Iran, warning financial institutions not to allow independent Chinese refineries to buy Iranian oil and cracking down on Iran’s “shadow” banking sector. The measures were the latest actions taken as part of the Treasury Department’s “Operation Economic Fury,” which aims to cripple Iran’s economy and compel it to agree to a peace deal with the United States. After easing sanctions on Iran last month in hopes of keeping oil flowing on global markets, the Trump administration reversed course in recent…

War and Sanctions Accelerate China’s Currency Push

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Neat rows of Chinese currency bills sit behind glass at the center of the national security gallery inside Hong Kong’s Museum of History, along with model fighter jets, attack helicopters and vials of rare-earth metals. Set with instruments of war and trade, the display underscores a central idea: The internationalization of its currency, the renminbi, is considered a pillar of China’s national security. Despite its rise as an economic superpower, China remains reliant on a global financial system anchored by the dollar. Turning the renminbi into a globally accepted currency…

U.S. and Britain Accuse China of Cyberespionage Campaign

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The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on China’s elite hacking units on Monday, accusing Beijing’s top spy agency of a yearslong effort to place malware in America’s electrical grids, defense systems and other critical infrastructure, and of stealing the voting rolls for 40 million British citizens. Taken together, the actions on both sides of the Atlantic underscored the escalation of cyberconflict between the Western allies and Beijing, in vastly different spheres. American intelligence agencies have warned that the malware found in U.S. infrastructure appeared to be intended for use…

U.S. Accuses Chinese Hackers of Targeting Critical Infrastructure in America

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The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Chinese hackers and accused them of working as a front for Beijing’s top spy agency, part of a broad effort to place malware in American electric grids, water systems and other critical infrastructure. The sanctions were a major escalation of what has become an increasingly heated contest between the Biden administration and Beijing. While there have been no cases so far in which the Chinese government has turned off essential services, American intelligence agencies have warned in recent months that the malware…

U.S. Call for Gaza Cease-Fire Runs Into Russia-China Veto

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A U.S. bid to have the U.N. Security Council call for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday, after Russia and China vetoed the American resolution that included some of Washington’s strongest language since the start of the war. The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct in a war that has killed about 30,000 people and reduced much of the enclave to ruins. The administration has been pressuring Israel not to attack the…

Émigrés Are Creating an Alternative China, One Bookstore at a Time

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On a rainy Saturday afternoon in central Tokyo, 50 or so Chinese people packed into a gray, nondescript office that doubles as a bookstore. They came for a seminar about Qiu Jin, a Chinese feminist poet and revolutionary who was beheaded more than a century ago for conspiring to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Like them, Ms. Qiu had lived as an immigrant in Japan. The lecture’s title, “Rebuilding China in Tokyo,” said as much about the aspirations of the people in the room as it did about Ms. Qiu’s life.…

U.S. Campaign to Isolate Russia Shows Limits After 2 Years of War

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The Biden administration and European allies call President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a tyrant and a war criminal. But he enjoys a standing invitation to the halls of power in Brazil. The president of Brazil says that Ukraine and Russia are both to blame for the war that began with the Russian military’s invasion. And his nation’s purchases of Russian energy and fertilizer have soared, pumping billions of dollars into the Russian economy. The views of the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, encapsulate the global bind in which…

Two Cases Aim to Cut Off China and Iran From U.S. Technology

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The U.S. government announced charges in two separate cases on Wednesday aimed at enforcing laws blocking the transfer of critical technologies, part of a broader campaign to hamper military efforts and weapons production in rival countries. One of the complaints was against a U.S. citizen born in China who has been arrested and accused of stealing trade secrets from a private company. The technology, according to court documents, “would be dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors.” A Justice Department complaint filed in U.S. District Court in…

U.S. Hits Back at Iran With Sanctions, Criminal Charges and Airstrikes

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In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges. The Biden administration sanctioned officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian drones. And it unsealed charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The timing seemed designed to pressure the Revolutionary Guards and its most elite unit, the Quds…