What China is Learning from the West’s Sanctions against Russia
- China is closely studying Western sanctions on Russia to strengthen its resilience and sanction-proof its economy.
- Beijing has expanded its geo-economic toolkit in response to American sanctions and the U.S.-China trade war in recent years.
- Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, China has accelerated these efforts, de-risking its financial exposure and adapting legal and institutional frameworks to withstand foreign pressure and enable countermeasures.
- These measures may reduce the deterrent effect of similar broad-scale sanctions against China, though economic interdependence still provides some leverage for Europe.
Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been met with unprecedented sanctions imposed by the U.S., EU, and their Western allies. So far, no less than 19 sanctions packages have been adopted, targeting key Russian sectors, including the financial sector, critical technologies, and energy and defence industries. Among the most impactful measures have been the freezing of €300 billion Russian central bank reserves, the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT global payments system, export controls on dual-use goods, and a slew of measures designed to diminish Russian revenues from the export of oil and gas.
Over the past three and a half years, Western policymakers and analysts have paid close attention to the effects of these sanctions on the Russian economy, but so have their Chinese counterparts. While the West has been busy crafting ever-more restrictive measures aimed to hurt the Russian economy, Beijing has been actively studying how to counter similar measures, fearing it may one day become a target itself.
This Clingendael Alert assesses what China has learned from Western sanctions against Russia and explores the policy implications for the Netherlands and the EU – particularly in the context of potential future scenarios where Europe might consider imposing broad sanctions on China. The Alert is based on an extensive review of the available literature and informed by an expert roundtable organised with the core group of the Clingendael Sanctions Network.
