The US Should Enforce, Not Increase, Iranian Oil Sanctions
The White House has been more concerned about rising oil prices than increased Iranian crude production.
US sanctions against Iranian oil have been ineffective.
Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
If you believe the Chinese government, the country doesn’t import any oil from Iran. Zero. Not a barrel. Instead, it imports lots of Malaysian crude. So much that, according to official Chinese customs data, it somehow buys more than twice as much Malaysian oil as Malaysia actually produces.
Impossible? Well, of course. The reality is that China simply rebrands every barrel of Iranian crude it imports as Malaysian — the easiest and cheapest way to defy US sanctions, according to oil traders. It isn’t a small matter: “Malaysia” was China’s fourth-biggest foreign oil suppler last year, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq1.