Ministry of Commerce says sanctions against refineries accused of importing Iranian oil violate international law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 3 May 2026<\/span>3 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n China has announced an injunction to block US sanctions placed on five Chinese refiners accused \u200cof buying oil from Iran.<\/p>\n The sanctions announced by the United States Department of the Treasury late last month bar the companies from the US financial system and seek to penalise anyone doing business with the firms.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In a statement on Saturday, China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce said the sanctions \u201cimproperly\u201d restrict business between Chinese enterprises and third countries \u201cin violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations\u201d.<\/p>\n The Commerce Ministry said it had issued a \u201cprohibition order\u201d stipulating that the sanctions \u201cshall not be recognized, enforced, or complied with\u201d to \u201csafeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese government has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack UN authorisation and basis in international law,\u201d the ministry added.<\/p>\n It said the order blocked US measures against Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery and four other so-called \u201cteapot\u201d refineries: Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group, Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong \u2060Shengxing Chemical.<\/p>\n Announcing the sanctions on April 24, the US Treasury Department called Hengli \u201cone of Tehran\u2019s most valued customers\u201d, saying it had generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian military through crude oil purchases.<\/p>\n The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the other four refineries named by the Chinese ministry, among other facilities, last year.<\/p>\n China gets more than half of its oil from the Middle East, much of it from Iran.<\/p>\n According to commodities data firm Kpler, China bought more than 80 percent of the oil Iran shipped in 2025.<\/p>\n China\u2019s \u201cteapot\u201d refineries operate independently and are generally smaller than the facilities run by state-owned oil giants, such as Sinopec.<\/p>\n The facilities, which have been crucial to China\u2019s efforts to secure its oil supplies, capitalise on heavily discounted crude sold by countries under sanctions, such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.<\/p>\n Teapots account for a quarter of Chinese \u2060refinery capacity, operate with narrow and sometimes negative margins, and have been squeezed recently by tepid domestic demand.<\/p>\n US sanctions have created additional hurdles for refiners, including difficulties selling refined products under their correct place-of-origin markings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ministry of Commerce says sanctions against refineries accused of importing Iranian oil violate international law. Published On 3 May 20263 May 2026 China has announced an injunction to block US sanctions placed on five Chinese refiners accused \u200cof buying oil from Iran. The sanctions announced by the United States Department of the Treasury late last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/photo-1-1-1768834711.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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