China Balks as Geithner Presses for Iran Curbs
Pool photo by Andy Wong
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, right, and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China met in Beijing on Wednesday.
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: January 11, 2012
BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner pressed Chinese senior leaders on Wednesday to join an American-led campaign to reduce sharply Iran’s lucrative oil exports because of its nuclear program. And as they had before Mr. Geithner’s arrival here on Tuesday, Chinese officials said publicly that they wanted no part of the effort.
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But President Obama’s administration, armed with a new law that would punish foreign financial institutions that deal with Iran, appeared undeterred.
“We are in the early stages of a broad global diplomatic effort to take advantage of this new legislation to significantly intensify the pressure on Iran,” a senior administration official said on Wednesday. “We are telling them what’s important to us, and they are listening.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic importance of the issues.
The discussions on Iran were a highlight of Mr. Geithner’s separate meetings with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang, which covered the landscape of economic and trade relations between China and the United States. Because the Treasury Department is responsible for enforcing sanction laws, Mr. Geithner spent time explaining the new legislation, which would generally deny access to the American financial system for foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s Central Bank.
The law exempts institutions in nations that achieve “significant reduction” in their imports of oil from Iran. How much is “significant” is not defined, giving the White House broad leeway to promise dispensations to big oil buyers that make at least some effort to meet the requirement.
China is among Iran’s biggest oil customers. It relies on Tehran for more than 11 percent of its oil imports and 5 percent of its total supply, and it has extensive business interests in the Iranian oil industry. Although China has carried out United Nations sanctions against Iran, it also has worked hard to water down proposals for sanctions that have gone before the Security Council, where it has a veto.
On Wednesday, a Chinese foreign affairs vice minister, Zhai Jun, dismissed the latest American proposal, just as a second vice minister, Cui Tiankai, had done in a meeting with foreign journalists on Monday.
“We oppose pressuring or international sanctions, because these pressures and sanctions are not helpful,” he said. “They have not solved any issues. We believe these problems should be solved by dialogue.”
But the Obama administration tends to discount Beijing’s public statements, and it instead watches what the government actually does.
Mr. Geithner also pressed the Chinese on a range of economic and trade concerns, including complaints by American businesses that Chinese companies continue to steal their intellectual property, like software and industrial technology, and that Beijing denies American companies equal access to its markets.
He also pressed the Chinese once again to allow their currency, the renminbi, to appreciate faster against the dollar. The United States says the value of the renminbi is deliberately kept low to give Chinese products a price advantage in export markets.
China has said that the renminbi will continue to gain value slowly. But while some Chinese experts want faster appreciation, the political consensus within the government is to limit it. In recent days, the renminbi has fallen slightly in value, as investors worried about the prospect of slowing growth in China, Bloomberg News reported.
Pool photo by Andy Wong
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, right, and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China met in Beijing on Wednesday.
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: January 11, 2012
BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner pressed Chinese senior leaders on Wednesday to join an American-led campaign to reduce sharply Iran’s lucrative oil exports because of its nuclear program. And as they had before Mr. Geithner’s arrival here on Tuesday, Chinese officials said publicly that they wanted no part of the effort.
Metro Twitter Logo.
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
But President Obama’s administration, armed with a new law that would punish foreign financial institutions that deal with Iran, appeared undeterred.
“We are in the early stages of a broad global diplomatic effort to take advantage of this new legislation to significantly intensify the pressure on Iran,” a senior administration official said on Wednesday. “We are telling them what’s important to us, and they are listening.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic importance of the issues.
The discussions on Iran were a highlight of Mr. Geithner’s separate meetings with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang, which covered the landscape of economic and trade relations between China and the United States. Because the Treasury Department is responsible for enforcing sanction laws, Mr. Geithner spent time explaining the new legislation, which would generally deny access to the American financial system for foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s Central Bank.
The law exempts institutions in nations that achieve “significant reduction” in their imports of oil from Iran. How much is “significant” is not defined, giving the White House broad leeway to promise dispensations to big oil buyers that make at least some effort to meet the requirement.
China is among Iran’s biggest oil customers. It relies on Tehran for more than 11 percent of its oil imports and 5 percent of its total supply, and it has extensive business interests in the Iranian oil industry. Although China has carried out United Nations sanctions against Iran, it also has worked hard to water down proposals for sanctions that have gone before the Security Council, where it has a veto.
On Wednesday, a Chinese foreign affairs vice minister, Zhai Jun, dismissed the latest American proposal, just as a second vice minister, Cui Tiankai, had done in a meeting with foreign journalists on Monday.
“We oppose pressuring or international sanctions, because these pressures and sanctions are not helpful,” he said. “They have not solved any issues. We believe these problems should be solved by dialogue.”
But the Obama administration tends to discount Beijing’s public statements, and it instead watches what the government actually does.
Mr. Geithner also pressed the Chinese on a range of economic and trade concerns, including complaints by American businesses that Chinese companies continue to steal their intellectual property, like software and industrial technology, and that Beijing denies American companies equal access to its markets.
He also pressed the Chinese once again to allow their currency, the renminbi, to appreciate faster against the dollar. The United States says the value of the renminbi is deliberately kept low to give Chinese products a price advantage in export markets.
China has said that the renminbi will continue to gain value slowly. But while some Chinese experts want faster appreciation, the political consensus within the government is to limit it. In recent days, the renminbi has fallen slightly in value, as investors worried about the prospect of slowing growth in China, Bloomberg News reported.
