9 ms·
Bank of China's Singapore operation stops financing Russian oil trades
- rmbyrro 5y agoDoes anyone know whether this is relevant to the Russians at all? I presume China wants to stay neutral. This is just a signal to the West, without doing anything actually meaningful against Russia, perhaps?
- qeternity 5y ago> Does anyone know whether this is relevant to the Russians at all? This is huge, and absolutely crippling to Russia. It’s unlikely that this will continue as the sanctions have actually excluded energy, because neither side want to disrupt the flow of oil and gas which would be too expensive for everyone. What we’re most likely seeing is risk/compliance managers pause activity until they can review everything.
- encryptluks2 5y agoOr just some virtue signaling followed with some PR.
- octoberfranklin 5y agoHint: HN's algo autodownvotes you, hard, for using that phrase. It's on the banned phrases list.
- kragen 5y agoWhich one, "just some virtue signaling" or "some PR"?
- encryptluks2 5y agoBoth is my guess?
- polotics 5y ago
- MarcoZavala 5y ago
- stavros 5y agoI've been wondering, why write like this? This comment makes no sense to me and, I bet, most other commenters. I have a friend who also talks like this, he's a conspiracy theorist deeply lost in his web of conspiracies. It's almost like it's the conspiracy theorist's dialect, where it's information- and reference-dense but transmission-poor, because all conspiracy theorists in one group speak the lingo so they all understand the random words scattered about.
- kragen 5y agoI suspect you're replying to someone suffering from schizophrenia, which makes it difficult to organize speech and writing clearly sometimes. But maybe they just speak English as a foreign language, and not very well?
- stavros 5y agoOh hmm, that would be bad, though it looks more like my friend's writing (who, now that you mention it, I'm not entirely sure doesn't have schizophrenia, hmm) than, say, TempleOS's comments. It's coherent, just uses way too many references for outsiders to understand. Maybe you're right, though, thanks for clarifying!
- kragen 5y agoIt's at least somewhat coherent, but who is Melian? Are we talking about the residents of Melos? (That would make sense in context if we take Thucydides' word of what happened in the Melians' negotiations, but I wasn't familiar with the history.) Why is "Piper" capitalized and "chinese" not? What's with the "spooks leaders" grammatical incongruency?
- timeon 5y agoCrippled Russia plays in to China`s cards as well. Russia is going to be at mercy of China if Putin stays in power after this war. Which is most likely unless there is massive revolution in Russia.
- FooBarWidget 5y agoA crippled Russia is not in China's interest. After the US and its allies are done destroying Russia, they will go after China next. One of the reasons why China and Russia are strategic partners is because they live in a world in which they need each other.
- cygx 5y agoAfter the US and its allies are done destroying Russia, they will go after China next. Doubtful, given the state of the global economy.
- FooBarWidget 5y agoThe US is already going after China. Russia merely distracted them — for now. There is even precedence for this. In the 1960s, the Pentagon proposed nuking 200+ million Chinese (1/3rd population) in case a nuclear war between US and USSR happened, just to prevent China from being a viable surviving society. And the only reason why they capped at 200+ million was because Chinese population was too dispersed so it would take too many nukes to kill more. Source: declassified document https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-08-15/us-nuclear-war-plan-option-sought-destruction-china-soviet-union-viable-societies https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-0...
- animal531 5y agoThere's also the BRICS group which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. All 3 of the smaller countries have squashed any negative comments coming out of the government against what's currently happening. Their whole goal is an informal grouping of non-interference, equality and mutual benefit. As a South African I can't say I very much want to be a part of the group, but here we are.
- rmbyrro 5y agoI was surprised to see this alignment among BRICS.
- ngc248 5y agoIn diplomacy and realpolitik there are no permanent friends and enemies and upcoming powers need to toe the line even more carefully. Additionally India, South Africa and Brazil (observer) also belong to the NAM (Non Aligned Movement)
- pelasaco 5y agoexactly. Brazil is always neutral in that matters. They aren't NATO, they are friend from US, China, Ukraine and Russia. That's the external politics from Brazil since years. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-28/bolsonaro-says-brazil-backs-neutral-stance-on-ukraine-invasion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-28/bolsonaro...
- simonh 5y agoBrazil has gone further than quashing negative comments, Bolsonaro is going on about how great Putin is, what a joke Zelensky is and how lots of Ukrainians speak Russian anyway.
- pelasaco 5y agowow, spreading fake news live? Ukraine said Brazilian position voting against Russia at UN is already an official position https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFw_u7X2oLM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFw_u7X2oLM
- gip 5y agoChina is in a very uncomfortable situation imo. More than staying neutral, they are probably trying to find a way out. They have: (0) enabled an unprovoked attack from Russia on Ukraine, undermining peace in Europe, (1) said that their ties to Putin have "no limits", (2) shared intelligence coming from the US with Russia, (3) not moved their own citizens out of Ukraine and (4) enabled a nasty rhetoric about Ukrainians By going for self-interest and mercantilism over a principled and fair approach to international affairs, what China is doing is destabilizing and dangerous. China needs to be contained.
- rmbyrro 5y agoHow did China "enable an unprovoked attack from Russia on Ukraine"? This was all Russia initiative, wasn't it?
- gip 5y agoChina has willingly accepted to support Russia confront NATO directly and said Putin they will help in case of unilateral sanctions from the West. China may not try to backtrack a bit, but that support directly enabled Putin to invade (even though China may not have been given the details). China must pay for that.
- vore 5y agoIs this as a result of the Singaporean government sanctioning Russia? https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-impose-appropriate-sanctions-restrictions-russia-2022-02-28/ https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-impose-... I assume that if Bank of China wants to do business in Singapore, their Singaporean branch must comply with Singaporean law.
- russli1993 5y agoMaybe both https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/chinese-state-banks-restrict-financing-for-russian-commodities https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/chinese-s... Other state banks are also doing sanctions: Stopping financing for purchases of Russian commodities. Complying with western sanctions. Reducing compliance risks
- csomar 5y agoSomething that people here might be missing: If the Russia companies/banks/brokers get sanctioned, they might be in a situation where they can't honor their engagement. Who'd want to deal with that? The Chinese might be thinking pragmatically after all.
- MrDresden 5y agoExactly. I would be very suprised if this is driven by anything other than pragmatic self interest.
- acdha 5y agoAt the very least, I’d be surprised if they weren’t renegotiating eye-watering rates: it’s not like Russia has many options and I suspect the Chinese government would like Putin to collapse and be replaced with someone better for business.
- octoberfranklin 5y agoI suspect the Chinese government would like to conquer Taiwan, especially if they could do so as part of a multi-front world war in which they weren't the one who shot Archduke Ferdinand. No matter which way it turns out, they'd prefer that history remember the whole conflagration as something started by Russia rather than by China. Putin is definitely getting a holiday card from Xi this year.
- wolpoli 5y agoIt's worth mentioning that Bank of China is a bank in China. The central bank of China is actually called People's Bank of China.
- rob74 5y agoThe question is, is it one of the largest banks, like Deutsche Bank in Germany, or is it relatively insignificant?
- est 5y agoOne of the Big Five https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(banking)#China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(banking)#China China actually has a regulation that requires only significantly large or central-government owned enterprise can be named after "China"
- enkid 5y agoYes, but Bank of China is a state owned/controlled entity.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- KaiserPro 5y agoI suspect its because Singapore has imposed sanction, rather than a willing thing from HQ.
- fqye 5y ago