Against Beijing’s wishes, Chinese companies are quietly withdrawing from Russia

According to wall street journalseveral large Chinese companies reduce their shipments to Russiawithout making a public announcement and this against the will of the Chinese government, which calls for resistance to foreign coercion.

Lenovo, Xiaomi and Dji are among the Chinese companies cutting their exports

Among the Chinese companies that are quietly withdrawing from the Russian market are two Chinese giants specializing in the manufacture of smartphones: Lenovo and Xiaomi. Unlike most Western companies, Chinese companies that have chosen to no longer collaborate with Russia, avoided making public statements about the invasion of Ukraine or their activities there. They want to avoid incurring the wrath of the Chinese government, as Beijing opposes sanctions imposed by Western countries.

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In terms of technological products, Chinese exports fell in March 2022, compared to February. A few telling examples: shipments of laptop computers fell by more than 40% and smartphones by 60%. It must be said that Chinese shipments are disrupted with a large part of the planet because of the confinements linked to Covid-19 in Shanghai, and the zero covid policy applied by the government. The Chinese capital is home to a large part of the country’s factories. Only a few of them were allowed to open, on condition that the employees sleep on site. This is particularly the case of Tesla on the Gigafactory 3.

Shipments from China to Russia fell 27%

This discreet withdrawal of Chinese companies from Russia follows waves of financial sanctions and sweeping export controls imposed by the United States and the European Union on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The United States has even threatened to punish Chinese companies that do not follow these rules. the wall street journal specifies that certain American companies which supply semiconductors to Chinese companies, pressure so that they follow the rules and ensure that their chips do not end up in third-party goods shipped to Russia.

In April, the Ministry of Commerce in China acknowledged that the sanctions had disrupted the country’s shipments to Russia, but urged Chinese companies to “not to submit to external coercion and not to make inappropriate statements”. This decline in technology exports to Russia highlights the widespread nature of Western sanctions and their ability to influence the decisions of foreign companies, even when their government opposes them. Overall, China’s exports to Russia fell 27% in value between February and March, according to official trade data.

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