U.S. Senator calling for China’s oil export ban welcomes Beijing’s anger


Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Was one of four US lawmakers who were subject to retaliation sanctions by the Chinese government two years ago. And the pressure from Beijing hasn’t eased since then.

Data analysis over the past few months has shown a surge in attacks from Chinese and social media targeting Senators at the forefront of evoking threats from the Chinese Communist Party.

This included nearly 200 censorship references in six months and escalated in late March following Rubio’s speech, calling the Chinese Communist Party “the greatest threat facing America today.” Criticized the NBA To “politicize the horrific tragedy in America,” but refrain from talking about “the billions they make from China that enslave Uighur Muslims and harvest their organs.”

“Anti-Chinese pioneers” and “Anti-Chinese pioneers” were some of the statements that appeared in the Chinese media during that period. In general, the reaction from Chinese authorities was remarkable because “the Chinese media does not incite an attack, but only reacts to what it perceives as an attack by US politicians.” Read the analysis by the technical analysis company shared with The Epoch Times.

Remittance of oil to the genocide regime

Such an attack occurred on June 16th, the day after Rubio and Senator Rick Scott (Florida) introduced the “China Oil Export Ban Act” to ban the US export of oil and petroleum products to China. Reached a new height. They said, “Unknowingly, we will help and support our main enemy.”

“While gas prices are skyrocketing nationwide, the Biden administration allows 500,000 barrels of US oil to go to China every day,” Rubio said. statement With the bill. “This is unacceptable. We need to increase US oil production and prioritize domestic consumers. We are not sending oil to a genocide regime that is half a world away.”

China, the world’s largest oil importer, was one of the top five destinations for both US oil exports last year. according to To the US Energy Information Administration. The United States exported about 8.63 million barrels per day in 2021. Exports to China accounted for 7% of this total.

The proposed ban raises the strongest protests to date from China’s state media network, spawning posts labeling Senators as “notorious” and “anti-China” to analyze China’s information environment. The trend map showed.

“Rubio and Scott are forcing the US soaring problem in China,” a June 16 post shared by news aggregator Guancha on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, to 18.7 million followers. I read.

China’s Internet Troll has also spread Rubio’s response to the launch of China’s first domestic aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic catapult, allowing it to deploy more types of aircraft with heavier loads and more fuel. ..

“U.S. anti-Chinese lawmaker Rubio fired. Soon the world will have two aircraft carriers using electromagnetic catapults, one of which will come from China,” said the military-focused Weibo account Air Force World. Declared to about 8.5 million fans on June 16th.

“I’m not surprised”

A senator who was subject to Beijing’s retaliation sanctions in July 2020 said it was not surprising to him to see such words from China’s Communist State Organization.

“I have already been banned and sanctioned by Beijing, and now this is,” he told The Epoch Times.

“I’m not surprised. The Chinese Communist Party hates those who act for the benefit of America, not China,” he said. “It is a badge of honor that the Chinese Communist Party sees me as a threat to their anti-American agenda.”

In 2020, China’s sanctions targeting Rubio came shortly after the United States blacklisted four Chinese Communist Party executives involved in the persecution of the Uighur population in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. , Mental and sexual torture.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have determined that the repressive policies of the administration in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are a form of genocide.

On June 19, two days before the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act defended by Rubio came into effect, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs banned the import of goods from China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region due to concerns about forced labor. A falsehood in the US’s perception of China. “The ministry accused Rubio of” trying to crush the “genocide” accusations of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. “

Rubio, a key member of the Chinese Parliamentary Executive Committee, a bipartisan bi-camera agency that oversees the development of China’s human rights and rule of law, supported the implementation of the Uighur Forced Labor Bill on June 17.

“The United States has sent a clear message that it is no longer part of the Chinese Communist Party’s use of slave labor and crimes against humanity,” he said in a group. statement With the other three authors of the bill.

Evafu

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Eva Fu is a New York-based writer of The Epoch Times, focusing on Sino-US relations, religious freedom, and human rights. Contact Eva at [email protected]