July 4 is undoubtedly a very important day in the international community, not only the independence day of the United States, but also the date of the SCO Heads of State Council in India to issue the New Delhi Declaration, and at the same time, it is also the time when Iran officially becomes a member of the SCO. Now Iran has officially become the 9th member of the SCO, and after joining the SCO, Iran announced two major measures, both related to the United States.
(Iran officially joins the Shanghai Cooperation Organization)
The first thing is Iranian President Raisi's call for de-dollarization, which is clearly a challenge to the hegemony dominated by the dollar, openly challenging the United States, and of course, this is also a goal jointly promoted by the SCO and BRICS and other countries. That is, to get rid of the dependence on the US dollar and add more local currency settlements, and Iran's move can also alleviate the impact of US sanctions;
The second major step is for Iran to work with Russia to promote energy exports. Safari, Iran's deputy minister for economic and foreign affairs, said that Iran and Russia have something in common, both are energy exporters, while other countries are consumers, and with Iran's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, it will help promote Russian-Iranian energy exports.
When it comes to common ground, because each of these two countries has suffered sanctions from the United States and the West, and even the United States and the West have to join forces to suppress the price of Russian oil, and the sanctions against Iran are more severe, then the cooperation between Russia and Iran can provide Iran with more ways out and bargaining chips with the West. It can be seen that after joining the SCO, Iran's action is relatively large and relatively rapid, and it has taken a series of latest measures against sanctions at the first time.
(Screenshot of Russian media reports, Russia and Iran join forces to promote energy exports)
In fact, Iran has always been eager to join the SCO, geographically speaking, the SCO is relatively close to Iran, and Iran has more trade and economic cooperation with Russia, Central Asia, China, India and Pakistan, including energy cooperation with Russia, and recently negotiated with Russia on the construction of a north-south railway. Moreover, Iran is eager to catch the express train of China's economic development.
From the international environment, Iran also urgently needs to join an organization that can bring more development opportunities to itself, because with the layout of the United States in the Middle East, resulting in the intensification of contradictions with Iran, the two countries have carried out several confrontations openly and covertly, and during the epidemic, the United States has not lifted sanctions against Iran, not allowing Iran to buy vaccines, a series of Western economic sanctions have affected Iran's oil exports, which has led to a decline in the Iranian economy, then Iran urgently needs a reliable organization like SCO to help develop the economy.
Moreover, from the perspective of the nature of the organization, the SCO is undoubtedly very suitable for Iran, including the Shanghai spirit and the three initiatives, as well as the goal of joint counter-terrorism, common development, and building a community with a shared future in the SCO, which is basically the same as Iran's direction. Therefore, joining the SCO is crucial for Iran, both for its own development and to counter US sanctions.
(Russia supports Iran's proposal to build an "anti-sanctions coalition")
In fact, Iran has always wanted to build an anti-sanctions alliance, Iran and Russia have this idea, and even want to win China to join, in this way, Iran's anti-sanctions alliance will indeed have influence, but there are two reasons that cannot be achieved, one is that China is a non-aligned country, it is difficult to establish an anti-sanctions alliance with Russia and Iran, the second is that China's economy is different from Russia and Iran, Russia and Iran mainly rely on energy exports, is an energy export-oriented country, China mainly relies on international trade, and there is more trade cooperation with the West, soFor Iran's previously proposed anti-sanctions coalition, China may not join. But China has a more effective approach to counter-sanctions.
Recently, with the United States in the high-tech field of many restrictive measures, but also Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands also joined the camp of sanctions against China, China has also taken reciprocal countermeasures. China's Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs have announced that they will implement export control of gallium and germanium-related items, which means that the related compounds of these two substances, China will restrict exports, and these two metals are of course not ordinary metals, but very rare metals, commonly used in high-tech materials, such as semiconductors, solar energy, and other high-end instruments, then the effect of China's ban is obvious, one is that the United States, Japan and some Western countries have begun to fidget. It is believed that China's such measures may affect their technological development and even affect the economy.
(Iran held the Asian Qing Conference to establish a new settlement system other than the US dollar)
According to the Dutch Foreign Ministry, as a country with lithography machine technology, the Netherlands realized the seriousness of the problem and began to call on the EU to respond. So China's announcement of these measures is actually not aimed at any third party, because according to China, it is for national security and strategic considerations, the role of these two metals is very large, and China is from the position of safeguarding national interests to ban the export of two rare metal materials.
Moreover, China did not immediately ban it, and left the United States a chance. Then, according to the ban, the ban on these two metals was officially implemented on the 1st, which means that there are still 20 days to go, leaving a window period.
Because everyone knows that U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen is about to visit China, the issue to be discussed is undoubtedly economic cooperation, as well as trade issues, the United States, whether it is the Trump administration or the Biden administration, trade with China first decoupled, and later advocated the so-called de-risk, which is essentially the exercise of suppressing China, then China's restrictions on exports, can also be regarded as reciprocal countermeasures, if the United States has other ideas, it can conduct an in-depth discussion during Yellen's visit to China, during which China will make concessions. It depends on how much sincerity the US side can show. Therefore, before visiting China, this step of the Chinese side is undoubtedly a brilliant move.
(U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit China for 4 days)
Moreover, China has also taught Russia and Iran a lesson with practical actions. Russia's attempt to build an anti-sanctions alliance and adopt a strategy of huddling for warmth is understandable in itself, but it still does not understand a truth. The reason why the United States has such a great ability to complete these sanctions is because it knows that Russia and Iran do not have as many chips as the United States.
In addition to relying on dollar hegemony and the Western settlement system, the United States includes various tools to achieve the goals of US sanctions, such as economic, political and military levels, and with its strong influence to promote allies to join the sanctions. And the United States can do it without worries, it has the world's largest GDP and the world's strongest military power. Moreover, according to the US presidential candidate, the United States has a total of 313 military bases overseas, and the huge military power supports the confidence of the United States to arbitrarily seize Iranian transport ships.
Therefore, it is difficult for us to hear what sanctions Iran and Russia have imposed on the United States, and even if they do, they are not as effective as the sanctions imposed by the United States. Of course, huddling for warmth can indeed hedge the impact of US sanctions, but on the issue of counter-sanctions, it still cannot play an immediate effect.
(Gallium oxide is a next-generation semiconductor material)
Then, the effect of China's approach is very obvious, because the export control is the strategic materials announced by the United States, and China is the main producer of gallium and germanium, basically suppliers of all countries in the world, including Japan, Europe and the United States and South Korea, need to import these two materials from China, if the supply is cut off, then the impact is small to the battery industry, to radar, semiconductors and other core technologies, so the production and upgrading of Western advanced equipment, have a big impact. From the perspective of the Western supply chain, there are more employees in this industry, and if the supply is cut off, it may affect the development of the entire industry, so the Chinese side is undoubtedly hitting their pain point.
China's approach has always been wiser, judging from agreeing to US Secretary of State Blinken's visit to China, in fact, everyone is more disgusted by Blinken's coming, because the United States has a set of face-to-face and a set of back-to-back practices, and it may not be effective to talk, so we do not want to waste time communicating with the United States, but everyone should note that before Blinken's visit to China, China also issued a ban on the US Micron Company, which caused an uproar on the US side, so it was after the ban was issued that the US side agreed to visit China. This means that on relevant issues, China will not follow the wishes of the US side, but has its own way of playing and thinking.
(Chinese spokesperson responds to reporters' questions)
Obviously, before Yellen's visit to China, China announced export control measures, which is the same reason. That is, the United States needs to be clear about what kind of price it should consider before restricting China's development and issuing more sanctions, because China is no longer the China of a hundred years ago, and it will certainly not be slaughtered by others. Moreover, according to Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce of the Chinese side, if the United States engages in sanctions, China will counteract it, and it is obvious that China can do it with ease.
It can also be seen from this that China obviously has more means and chips on the issue of counter-sanctions. On the issue of the anti-sanctions alliance, China's approach also tells Russia and Iran a truth, rather than huddling to warm, it is better to grasp the pain points of the United States, so that the possible effect is immediate, and the final initiative can return to their hands.