(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said China had been an unreliable global partner during the Middle East war by hoarding oil supplies and limiting exports of some goods, mirroring its actions with medical goods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bessent told reporters he had spoken with Chinese officials about the issue. He dodged a question about whether the dispute would derail U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to visit Beijing in mid-May, but said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a very good working relationship.
“I think the message for the visit is stability. We’ve had great stability in the relationship since last summer; that emanates from the top down,” he said. “I think that communication is the key.” But Bessent took China to task for its actions during the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, which sent oil prices up 50% and triggered supply chain disruptions.
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“China has been an unreliable global partner three times in the past five years; once during COVID, when they hoarded healthcare products, second on rare earth,” Bessent said, referring to Beijing’s threat last year to curb rare earth exports.
Now it was stockpiling more oil instead of helping ease the global demand shortage caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries 20% of the world’s oil, he said.
China already had a strategic petroleum reserve that was roughly the same size as that of the entire reserve held by the 32-member International Energy Agency, but it was continuing to purchase oil. “They continued buying, and they’ve been hoarding, and they have cut off exports of many products,” Bessent said.
No comment was immediately available from the Chinese embassy in Washington.
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and International Energy Agency on Monday urged countries to avoid hoarding energy supplies and imposing export controls that could worsen what they called the biggest shock ever to the global energy market. They did not identify specific countries.
The U.S. military on Monday began a blockade of ships leaving Iran’s ports and Tehran threatened to retaliate against its Gulf neighbors’ ports after weekend talks in Islamabad on ending the war broke down. Oil prices jumped back over $100 per barrel, with no sign of a swift reopening of the strait.
Bessent told reporters earlier that the blockade would ensure that no Chinese ships or others would be allowed to pass the strait. “So they’re not going to be able to get their oil. They can get oil. Not Iranian oil,” Bessent said, adding that China had been buying more than 90% of Iranian oil and it constituted about 8% of its annual purchases.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Andrea Ricci
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