The caution caused by Western sanctions on Russia is starting to become more evident in decisions made by Chinese companies as China UnionPay becomes the next major Chinese business to refuse to work with some Russian firms, reports Nikkei Asia. The bank card services provider has refused to work with Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and halted talks with other Russian financial institutions targeted by sanctions, forcing them to scrap plans to issue UnionPay cards.
While UnionPay accounted for only about 1% of bank cards issued in Russia as of 2020, interest had surged after Visa and Mastercard halted services there in response to this past February’s invasion of Ukraine. But the Chinese company has been reluctant to take the opportunity to expand.
The Chinese government has repeatedly asserted that normal economic and trade activity between China and Russia would continue, while criticizing the sanctions imposed by the US, Europe and others in response to the invasion of Ukraine. In an address last week to the Boao Forum for Asia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed China’s opposition to the “wanton use of unilateral sanctions.”
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