Yeah but like a bank that exists for the special purpose of trade between Russia and China.
Let them sanction it.
Like how after 2008 there were those “bad loans” banks. Make a bank to hold the sanctions but it’s invincible because it doesn’t do anything except Sino-Russia settlements.
Yeah but they can lie?
Or if manufacturer of X doesn’t want to take that risk, then middleman Y would be happy to take the risk in exchange for a markup.
All the US has is a paper trail and if china doesn’t share that with the US then the US has nothing.
It seems banks are a particular weak point because of the paper trail that is inherent to banking, which is why it seems odd that this weak point hasn’t been addressed. If there is a specific bank that does business with Russia and only Russia, then the middlemen can use that. The other banks stay clean and the manufacturers have plausible deniability.
Like, Kyrgyzstan is importing an unusual amount of German machine tools right now for example.