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The shadowy network of Chinese oil refineries funding Iran\n <\/p>\n
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The shadowy network of Chinese oil refineries funding Iran<\/p>\n
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\n A few hundred miles from where Chinese leader Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for President Donald Trump, a shadowy ecosystem has long been at work pumping billions of dollars into Iran\u2019s economy \u2013 now helping keep Tehran afloat in defiance of the US.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n These are the ports, pipelines, and oil refineries of Shandong province and its borderlands, where the hulking architecture of oil storage tanks and spindly profiles of smokestacks jut up from barren, coastal flatlands.\n <\/p>\n \n Here, so-called \u201cteapot refineries\u201d \u2013 small, independent oil companies that operate with the permission of Beijing \u2013 quietly process US-sanctioned Iranian crude into gas, diesel and petrochemicals for the world\u2019s second largest economy.\n <\/p>\n \n Now, as Washington looks to cut Tehran\u2019s financial lifelines and force it to capitulate to end the war, these activities are being yanked out of the margins and onto the negotiating table between Trump and Xi.\n <\/p>\n \n Tensions around this trade are deepening \u2013 playing out against a backdrop in which Beijing seeks stability in its relationship with the US, but also holds close economic and diplomatic ties with Iran.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n