China cuts Iranian oil purchases by 40%, Bessentsays

Investing.com -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that China has reduced its crude oil purchases by approximately 40% in recent months, a decline he said is significantly reducing Iran's oil revenues.

Bessent told Fox Business Network that the United States has imposed sanctions on Chinese teapot refineries, which are privately owned facilities, leading to a substantial drop in their Iranian oil purchases.

The Treasury Secretary said China's overall crude purchases have declined due to current prices and the country's large strategic petroleum reserve.

Bessent said the reduction in Chinese purchases is placing direct pressure on the Iranian government.

Separately, Bessent accused Chinese artificial intelligence models of incorporating "watermarks" from U.S. large language models, calling the practice unacceptable.

"We are finding watermarks of our U.S. large language models on many of the Chinese models, and that's unacceptable," Bessent told Fox Business. He added that the administration would examine the issue further "in the coming days or week."

You May Also Be Interested In

• Truflation sees June core PCE holding steady, flags upside risks for H2
• Alphabet nearly doubles AI infrastructure spending as Q2 tops estimates
• Comcast shares climb as second-quarter results top forecasts