Original: Zhanhao source official account: Zhanhao wechat id:zhanhao668
We often say that we should not look at what he says, but what he does. Deeds speak louder than words.
Recently, there have been a series of national “humours” in the world where actions speak louder than words. It is worth chatting about and seeing the absurdity of the world.
As we all know, after years of deployment, the United States finally provoked a war between Russia and Ukraine in order to fight the new cold war. After the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the United States also impolitely enlisted Western allies to impose the most severe sanctions on Russia, including the embargo on Russian oil and gas. Both the United States and Europe have vowed to impose blockade and sanctions on Russia’s energy exports, thus kicking Russia’s major financial institutions out of the Western led swift settlement system.
It seems that everything is normal here. Many people feel that this is undoubtedly a disaster for Russia. The market has indeed dealt Russia a heavy blow. The ruble plummeted under the unprecedented economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the west, which has brought great trouble to Russia. However, Russia is not vegetarian, guess what? Russia quit. It announced that all Western hostile countries that buy Russian energy must settle in rubles, and must open a special settlement account in a bank designated by Russia. They will not sell oil and natural gas without paying rubles to the account. It is difficult to take us dollars or euros!
As a result, a miracle happened. The ruble, which had plummeted, began to soar. Within a few days, the exchange rate of the ruble returned to the level before the US and Western sanctions. Later, it even exceeded the exchange rate before the outbreak of the Russian Ukrainian war. As a result, Russia had to take steps to curb the rapid rise of the ruble exchange rate.
Later, something even funnier began to happen. Almost no EU country stopped buying oil and natural gas from Russia, so they could only buy rubles from the foreign exchange market and then transfer the money to the special account of Russian financial institutions. Moreover, some countries have also been shut down by Russia for refusing to implement this policy. In the face of this situation, a reporter asked the president of the European Commission, von delaine, why are EU countries still buying Russian oil and gas? Guess what von drayn said? She said that if the EU immediately stopped buying, Russia could sell its oil to other sellers in the international market at a higher price, which would instead increase Russia’s oil revenue. What von drayn meant was that in order to reduce Russia’s oil and gas revenue, we decided to continue to buy Russian oil and gas.
Von delaine’s logic is magical enough, but there is a more magical logic – American logic. Since the United States and the West have imposed the most severe sanctions on Russia, the scale of U.S. oil purchases from Russia has started to soar. According to the report of Russian satellite news agency on June 1, Russia’s ranking leaped sharply in the list of oil suppliers of the United States. In March, Russia climbed from the ninth largest oil supplier of the United States to the sixth, and its monthly oil supply nearly doubled. According to the latest data released on the website of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US bought 17.825 million barrels of oil from Russia in March, an increase of 10.9% compared with February and 103.5% compared with January. That is to say, Russia made more money by starting the war.
What’s going on? Why does the United States demand sanctions from its allies, but why does it buy more and more sanctions? The reason is actually very simple – making money! The situation is like this. The United States enlisted its European allies to impose sanctions on Russia, and the oil and gas prices in the European Union soared. The supply of oil and gas fell short of demand. Of course, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a fortune. However, since the United States is located in the Americas, and the United States does not have much surplus to sell to Europe, what should we do? As a result, the American company is whimsical and decides to buy a large amount of oil from Russia, and then sell it to its European allies. In this way, it can make a lot of money! Is it a very magical logic?
Someone may have said, don’t European allies know? Of course. That’s why von delaine said that if they don’t buy it, Russia can sell it at a high price to the international community to make more money. Of course, she also knows that the EU will suffer more losses.
As a matter of fact, Russia has indeed made good profits. According to IEA data, Russia’s oil export revenue in May increased by 11% year-on-year to about US $20billion. Although the export volume decreased by about 3%, Russia’s income increased because the Russian Ukrainian war pushed up energy prices. The decline in overall export volume was mainly due to the decrease in refined oil exports, while Russia’s crude oil exports in May increased by nearly 500000 barrels / day compared with the beginning of the year, mainly due to the increase in delivery to Asia.
Asian buyers have been snapping up Russian oil, but they are asking for a 30% lower price than the price of cloth oil. However, this year, the oil distribution price rose by nearly 60%, which offset the impact of the price reduction to a certain extent. The average price of Urals crude oil, Russia’s main export mixed fuel, was USD 78.81/barrel in May, up nearly 12% over the previous month.
You see, the United States and the West have sanctioned Russia’s oil and gas for several months, and even declared an embargo, but in the end they have sanctioned a lonely one, and Russia’s oil and gas export revenue has increased instead. So, some things you look so weird.
However, there is another more magical thing, that is, China has also made a fortune in this matter. As we all know, a trade war broke out between China and the United States in 2018. After more than a year of fighting, trump found that there would be disadvantages instead of benefits. Later, he took the initiative to call Beijing for negotiations. Finally, at the end of 2019, the two sides reached the so-called first stage agreement. Part of the agreement was that the United States asked China to buy its oil and agricultural products. As far as China is concerned, whoever buys oil and gas is buying it, so it “reluctantly” signed the agreement. According to the agreement, the United States must supply oil to China on time. The war between Russia and Ukraine began, and the international oil price soared. Chinese companies saw that the oil price in Europe was outrageously high, and decided to help Europe stabilize the oil price. Therefore, they directly sold the oil purchased from the United States to Europe at the market price. Obviously, China has made its own contribution to stabilizing the oil price in Europe. Of course, it has barely made money in Europe.
The above logic shows that the US government can often create some opportunities to make money if it does something. The US wants to be one thing, but the reality is often another. This situation has also recently occurred between China and the United States.
According to the people’s daily on June 18, the Ministry of Commerce recently released data showing that from January to May this year, the actual amount of foreign capital used in China was 564.2 billion yuan, an increase of 17.3% year-on-year. In the first five months, the quality of foreign capital actually used in China was significantly improved.
In terms of industries, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry was 423.3 billion yuan, an increase of 10.8% year-on-year. The actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries increased by 42.7% year-on-year, including 32.9% in high-tech manufacturing and 45.4% in high-tech services. From the point of origin, the actual investment in China of South Korea, the United States and Germany increased by 52.8%, 27.1% and 21.4% respectively. From the perspective of regional distribution, the actual use of foreign capital in the eastern, central and western regions of China increased by 16.1%, 35.6% and 17.9% respectively year-on-year.
Have you seen that at a time when many people are not optimistic about China’s economy, the world’s view of China is completely opposite to that of many people in China. From January to may, the actual use of foreign capital increased by 17.3% year-on-year, which has illustrated the problem. More importantly, the main sources of funds for investing in China are South Korea, the United States and Germany. In particular, the United States looks very dazzling here, because the United States has been cracking down on China, especially on China’s science and technology industry. But now the result is that the U.S. investment in China has increased by 27.1%, which must be said to be heavy news.
As we all know, during the severe epidemic in Shanghai some time ago, many people expressed pessimistic views on China’s economy. However, Zhanhao has always stressed that although the epidemic has a certain impact on the macro economy, although the situation is indeed difficult, the overall pattern of China’s economy has not changed, and China’s macro economy is still stable and improving.
Now the data come out, which once again verifies Zhanhao’s judgment. The world is still optimistic about China, even if China suffers some short-term difficulties! However, some people in China do not have enough confidence in their own country. If you look at the world’s confidence in China, some people should be ashamed of their hindsight! Take the United States as an example. The White House is so hard on China, but American capitalists still invest in China. American investment in China has increased by nearly 30% year-on-year. Isn’t that a slap in the face of some people?
Our country’s advantages in infrastructure, human resources, industrial supporting facilities, etc. are not comparable to those of ordinary countries. Although it is a little difficult due to the change of the situation, our country soon recovered as usual after the end of the Shanghai epidemic!
Although the United States is hostile to China everywhere, its body is really honest! The United States still doesn’t want to give up China’s huge market. Of course, the United States can’t do without China’s manufacturing capacity! If you don’t believe me, you can try one and see who gets unlucky in the end!