Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, attended a press conference at the Information Office of the State Council for Promoting the High Quality Development of the Banking and Insurance Industry on March 2, 2021 in Beijing.
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BEIJING – China’s banking and insurance regulator said Wednesday that the country opposes and will not join financial sanctions against Russia.
“Everyone is watching the recent military conflict or war between Russia and Ukraine,” Guo Shuqing, chairman of China’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, told a mandarin news conference, according to a CNBC translation. “China’s position is clearly expressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our international policy is consistent.”
“With regard to financial sanctions, we do not support this,” Guo said, noting in particular opposition to “unilateral” sanctions, which he said did not solve problems effectively. “China will not join such sanctions.”
Guo is also secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. He added on Wednesday that he hopes all countries will maintain a normal economic exchange and that sanctions have so far had no visible effect on China.
China’s foreign ministry has refused to call Russia’s attack on Ukraine an invasion. Beijing’s line is to encourage negotiations as China tries to position itself further away from Russia than was presented in early February during a high-level meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have tried to impose sanctions on Russia, first in an attempt to prevent a conflict with Ukraine and then in pushing Putin to stop his invasion of Ukraine.