US House committee calls for major crackdown on China’s alleged sanctioned oil imports

his aerial picture taken on October 1, 2025 off the coast of the western France port of Saint-Nazaire shows the tanker Boracay from one of Russia’s “shadow fleets”.

Photo: AFP Lawmakers in the United States have urged the administration of US President Donald Trump to take action against China’s alleged sanctioned oil imports by blacklisting port operators and blocking complex settlement networks.

Despite Washington’s temporary easing of sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil to relieve price pressures from the US-Israeli war in Iran, the “House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” has released a 41-page report calling for a wide-ranging crackdown on China’s access to sanctioned crude.

The committee – a bipartisan panel charged with investigating and developing policies to address challenges posed by Beijing – warned that current enforcement gaps had to be closed.

When faced with similar accusations in the past, China stressed that it consistently and firmly opposed unilateral sanctions that lack any basis in international law.

According to Kpler data cited in the report, published on Tuesday, China’s imports of sanctioned oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela surged to 2.6 million barrels per day in 2025, accounting for about one-quarter of its total seaborne oil imports.

The report’s authors said Western sanctions had failed to cut off revenue from these countries and had instead concentrated discounted oil in China’s hands.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to South China Morning Post’s request for comment.

The SCMP also faxed an inquiry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had not responded at the time of publication.

On the trade front, the committee urged a formal investigation into whether foreign refineries that systematically buy discounted Russian crude were engaging in actionable market manipulation.

The report’s authors said the primary concern was that over-the-counter transactions might have “artificially depressed global benchmark oil prices”, putting compliant US refineries at a significant competitive disadvantage.

In doing so, the proposal extended the sanctions debate to questions of trade fairness.

The committee also advised the executive branch to develop a contingency framework to coordinate production increases with members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and several other oil-producing nations (Opec+) – i

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