Cangzhou, China — A few hundred miles from where Chinese leader Xi Jinping will roll out the red carpet for President Donald Trump this week, a shadowy ecosystem has long been at work pumping billions of dollars into Iran’s economy – now helping keep Tehran afloat in defiance of the US.<br>
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These are the ports, pipelines, and <A HREF="https://love-slon4.net/">slon7.at</A> 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.<br>
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Here, so-called "teapot refineries" – small, independent oil companies that operate with the permission of Beijing – quietly process US-sanctioned Iranian crude into gas, diesel and petrochemicals for the world’s second largest economy.<br>
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Now, as Washington looks to cut Tehran’s financial lifelines and force it to capitulate to end a months-long war, these activities are being yanked out of the margins and onto the negotiating table between Trump and Xi.<br>
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Tensions around this trade are deepening – 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.<br>
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Energy infrastructure in Cangzhou, Hebei, just north of the Shandong border.<br>
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Energy infrastructure in Cangzhou, Hebei, just north of the Shandong border. Justin Robertson/CNN<br>
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On the eve of Trump’s departure for China, the US Treasury Department blacklisted 12 people and entities for their roles enabling the "sale and shipment of Iranian oil" to China.<br>
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Beijing earlier this month ordered firms to ignore US sanctions on refineries soon after Washington added another <a href="https://www.hometalk.com/search/posts?filter=facility">facility</a> to its list. An ocean away in the Arabian Sea, US naval forces are chasing down so-called "shadow tankers" that ferry this crude from Iran – often to later be imported by operators in eastern China.<br>
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently accused China of helping to fund Iran’s terror networks with its energy purchases.<br>
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Earlier this week, along a desolate stretch of road lined with oil refineries just north of the border between Shandong and Hebei provinces, an awareness of that <a href="https://app.photobucket.com/search?query=spotlight">spotlight</a> seemed palpable.
