China’s imports of US liquefied natural gas have completely stopped for more than 10 weeks, according to shipping data showing how the Sino-American trade war has spread to energy co-operation.

The freeze on US LNG is a repeat of a block on imports that lasted for more than a year during Donald Trump’s first term as president.

But the impact of the stand-off has potentially far-reaching implications, strengthening China’s energy relationship with Russia and raising questions over the huge expansion of multibillion-dollar LNG terminals that is under way in the US and Mexico.

China’s ambassador to Russia said earlier this week that China would probably step up its imports of Russian LNG instead. “I know for sure that there are a lot of buyers. So many buyers are asking the embassy to help establish contacts with Russian suppliers, I think there will definitely be more [imports],” said Zhang Hanhui.

Russia has emerged as the third-largest supplier of LNG to China, behind Australia and Qatar; the two countries have also been negotiating over a new gas pipeline, the Power of Siberia 2.

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