Beijing yesterday reacted furiously to new Washington sanctions imposed on a Chinese bank owned and run by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) over transactions with Iran.
The Foreign Ministry said it would lodge an official protest and warned that America's move would damage Sino-US relations. It also urged the White House to revoke the sanction.
'The US sanctions against Chinese financial institutions badly violate rules governing international relations and hurt China's interests,' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
'China is strongly dissatisfied, it is firmly opposed to it and will raise solemn representations to the US from both Beijing and Washington.'
Qin's comments came after the United States imposed sanctions against Bank of Kunlun and Elaf Islamic Bank in Iraq for their involvement in Iran's energy sector, saying both 'facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of Iranian banks'.
Kunlun, a mid-sized lender that CNPC directly controls, is seen by its parent firm as an important financial vehicle in its overseas expansion.
CNPC first acquired a 92 per cent stake in the Xinjiang-based Commercial Bank in 2009 and renamed it Bank of Kunlun a year later.
