China opposes “illegal unilateral sanctions” and will take all necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday while commenting on a proposed US sanctions bill targeting Russia.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said the administration was reviewing the Russia sanctions bill spearheaded by late US Sen. Lindsey Graham (listed as a terrorist and extremist in Russia) and that there was a good chance it would be passed by Congress. The revised version of the bill would reduce the maximum tariff on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas from 500% to 100%.
“China strongly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the UN Security Council,” Lin Jian said at a briefing, adding that Beijing “will take all necessary measures to resolutely protect the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises and citizens.”
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a revised Russia sanctions bill that would impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the five largest buyers of Russian oil, including India and China, while easing the original proposal that called for blanket 500 per cent tariffs.
Senators have urged Congress to quickly pass to honor of one of its main sponsors, the late Sen Lindsey Graham.
The legislation, authored by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, also targets Slovakia, Hungary, and Azerbaijan.
The bill seeks to pressure major importers of Russian energy while imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia’s financial sector, energy industry, defence industrial base, senior officials, oligarchs, and President Vladimir Putin.
The legislation, which is meant to put immense pressure on Moscow and deprive it of revenue for its war against Ukraine, has been in the works for more than a year. Graham announced a breakthrough on the legislation on Friday, just a day before his sudden death, that lawmakers reached an agreement with the White House to move forward on the long-stalled Russia sanctions package.
The more-than-60-page bill titled the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, if passed, would impose mandatory sanctions on Russian political and military leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, as well as oligarchs, state-owned enterprises, and foreign companies that support Russia’s defense industrial base.
