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When You See This Chart You’ll Understand Why This Week’s Gulf Diplomacy in Beijing is So Important

by Eric Olander
Source: Reuters

Charts listing China’s top sources of imported oil used to look very different. In 2008, according to David Shinn from George Washington University, three suppliers from African dominated the top ten. At that stage Angola, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan accounting for a third of all Chinese imports.

Today, Angola remains the only African country in the top ten and its share of the China market has been steadily falling as Chinese buyers have shifted to Russia and Persian Gulf countries.

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