‘Sanctions only complicate’: China hits back at Trump’s push for Nato to punish Russian oil buyers

Despite repeated threats, Trump has not yet followed through with fresh penalties on Moscow.

China has delivered a sharp message to Washington after US President Donald Trump pressed Nato allies to impose tariffs on countries buying Russian oil. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during a state visit to Slovenia, said Beijing 'neither plots nor participates in wars' and warned that sanctions 'only complicate' conflicts instead of solving them, according to a Reuters report.

The timing was striking. Wang’s remarks came just hours after Trump publicly urged Nato nations to halt purchases of Russian crude and even floated 100 percent sanctions on China, one of Moscow’s largest oil customers.

Trump, in a letter addressed to Nato members and 'the world,' lashed out at allies still buying Russian energy.

“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all Nato nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all Nato Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump wrote.

Calling those purchases 'shocking,' Trump accused Nato countries of weakening their bargaining power with Moscow. He said he was prepared to “go” on sanctions “once you are” and pushed for collective action.

The US has already slapped heavy tariffs on India for its Russian crude imports. But so far, China, which touts itself as Moscow’s 'all-weather' strategic partner, has not faced the same penalties. That could change, as Trump and his team escalate calls for broader action.

US officials have also been nudging G7 economies, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK, to back tariffs targeting India and China, both seen as lifelines for Russia’s wartime oil revenues.

“Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told G7 finance ministers this week.

China’s stance has been consistent: avoid confrontation while keeping close ties with Russia intact. Earlier this week, Wang Yi spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stressing the need for both sides to “move forward together without deviating from their courses or losing speed,” according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

His comments in Slovenia doubled down on Beijing’s rejection of Washington’s sanction-first playbook. “War cannot solve problems, and sanctions only complicate them,” Wang said, in what amounted to a diplomatic rebuke of Trump’s push.

Trump has been careful to pin responsibility for the war on the Biden administration. “This is not Trump’s war (it would never have started if I was President!), it is Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s war,” he wrote.

At the same time, he insisted his plan, collective sanctions and a Russian oil squeeze would “end the war quickly and save thousands of lives.” Without Nato unity, he warned, “you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and money of the United States.”

Despite repeated threats, Trump has not yet followed through with fresh penalties on Moscow. That has frustrated Ukrainian officials, especially after Russia launched its largest aerial barrage since the invasion began.

Just weeks ago, Trump shared the stage with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a high-stakes summit in Alaska. Now, his branding of Nato’s energy purchases as 'shocking' has only deepened questions about how far the US president is willing to go, and how much unity he can extract from allies.