China can play the oil card if its trade rift with the US deepens

Beijing last week decided to exclude crude oil from the latest list of US goods targeted for tariffs. When China began reducing US crude orders in anticipation of tariffs, other Asian buyers stepped in, as reported by Bloomberg. China is the biggest single buyer of US crude withshipments to China accounting for 3% of the country’s total imports. Chinese refiners and the U.S. oil industry welcomed a decision by Beijing last week to exclude crude oil exports from a list of goods worth US$16 bill...