Taiwan has become the world\u2019s biggest importer of Russian naphtha, a petroleum derivative used to make chemicals needed for the semiconductor industry, despite the fact that it has joined other sanctions against Russia and considers itself an ally of\u00a0Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first half of 2025, Taiwan imported $1.3bn worth of Russian naphtha, and average monthly imports reached a level nearly six times higher than the 2022 average, according to a report published on Wednesday. Compared to the first half of 2024, Taiwan\u2019s naphtha imports this year increased by 44%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan has elsewhere been reiterating its support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. On Sunday, Taiwan\u2019s foreign minister, Lin Chia-lung, signed a pact in Poland to provide support for children in Ukraine affected by Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,\u00a0Taiwan joined international sanctions\u00a0against Moscow. It has also\u00a0imposed export controls\u00a0to prevent the island\u2019s hi-tech equipment from being used by Russia\u2019s military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Moscow\u2019s ability to continue with the war is funded in part by energy exports, with billions of dollars coming from Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since February 2022, Taiwan has imported 6.8m tonnes of Russian naphtha, worth $4.9bn, which is equal to 20% of Russia\u2019s total exports of the petroleum product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US president, Donald Trump, has\u00a0urged countries to stop buying Russian oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings come from a report published on Wednesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finnish thinktank, in collaboration with a consortium of European, Russian and Taiwanese NGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naphtha is a crude oil product that is used to make chemicals required for manufacturing semiconductors, electronic components that are the backbone of Taiwan\u2019s economy and which are vital for global industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite joining other sanctions against Russia, Taiwan, which is overwhelmingly reliant on imports for its energy needs, has not imposed restrictions on purchases of Russian fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that revenue from Taiwan\u2019s purchases of Russian naphtha \u201care not immaterial to the Kremlin\u2019s revenues.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan imports about 97% of its energy, a fact that experts have highlighted as a key vulnerability in the event of a conflict with China. It is a self-governing democracy but China claims it as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many analysts have drawn comparisons between Russia\u2019s designs on Ukraine and China\u2019s plans for Taiwan. The conflict is closely watched in Taiwan and has spurred\u00a0an interest in civil defence training programmes. There is a concern that China\u2019s support for Russia during the war in Ukraine could be reciprocated by Moscow in the event of a Chinese conflict with Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But some analysts said that Taiwan\u2019s purchases of Russian oil should not be over-interpreted. \u201cThis looks like opportunism by Taiwan\u2019s petrochemical industry,\u201d said John Lough, the head of foreign policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre. Lough said that even if the money from Taiwan helped to fill the Kremlin\u2019s coffers, \u201cit\u2019s a stretch to think that [Russia] will be willing or able to provide military support to China in the event of increased Chinese pressure on Taiwan\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Webster said: \u201cWhile Moscow and Beijing seek to absorb Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively, the two authoritarian powers are applying different approaches along different timelines. Moscow\u2019s illegal invasion was a desperate attempt to halt Ukraine\u2019s western orientation, but Beijing is much more patient and believes time is on its side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hsin Hsuan Sun, a director at the Environmental Rights Foundation and co-author of the report, said: \u201cTaiwan cannot afford to ignore the risks created by its growing dependence on Russian fossil fuel\u201d. Sun said that the reliance \u201cundermines Taiwan\u2019s credibility with democratic allies\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taiwan has become the world\u2019s biggest importer of Russian naphtha, a petroleum derivative used to make chemicals needed for the semiconductor industry, despite the fact that it has joined other sanctions against Russia and considers itself an ally of\u00a0Ukraine. In the first half of 2025, Taiwan imported $1.3bn worth of Russian naphtha, and average monthly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6263,287,7421,10767,5499,11606,913,9309,5196,5494,9505,9127,5345,7162,6569,6665,10321,10954,5252,1152,5572,5612,5340,5441,5081,837,3805,8383,3457,5217,5713,5374,2711,10236,5180,6348,11331,5251,36],"class_list":["post-46582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-beijing","tag-children","tag-chinese","tag-conflict","tag-crude-oil","tag-democracy","tag-democratic","tag-dollars","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-european","tag-february","tag-foreign-minister","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-fuel","tag-fuels","tag-illegal","tag-international","tag-invasion","tag-kremlin","tag-military","tag-money","tag-moscow","tag-oil","tag-petroleum","tag-poland","tag-president","tag-revenue","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-sanctions","tag-sun","tag-taiwan","tag-tech","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-us-president","tag-war","tag-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46585,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582\/revisions\/46585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}