2020

History
In January 2020, Deposits of oil is found by Chinese vessels Hai Long 1 and 2 in the Western Pacific Ocean by the Senkaku Islands, claimed by the governments of China, Taiwan, and Japan. China organized an offshore drilling operation via its state owned oil and gas corporation, Sinopec, to the disdain of the Japanese government, who claimed governance over the islands. The operation later involved the Saudi state owned oil and gas corporation, Saudi Aramco, in order to reinforce and expand its operations in March 2020. The joint venture later evolved into the oil giant Amari Corporation in July 2020.

The Japanese and Taiwanese governments both claimed a violation of their sovereignty by China, and that the invasion and unauthorized oil operation violates the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. As such, the Taiwanese government demanded military intervention from the United States with reinforcements from the Seventh Fleet from Guam. The United States government, following what later scholars called the Cormick Doctrine, decided that it was against the best interest of the United States to openly engage in conflict with China.

However, the United States Congress voted for Pacific Trade Sanctions Act in April 2020, passing the Act at 67-23. The Act closely follows the ideologies of Gordon Cormick, the 46th President of the United States. In the following week, on 16 April 2020, US President Cormick invoked the International Emergency Economic Power Act to sign Executive Order 14325 that declared a national emergency and issued sanctions on Chinese oil, barring economic partners of the United States from trading oil with any state-sponsored oil corporations from China for illegally annexing disputed territories. In May 2020, facing sanctions from the United States, The National People's Congress of China started a trading bloc known as the Chinese Economic Cooperation Fund that allowed itself to supply tax-free oil to participating nations. The trading bloc eventually evolved into the intergovernmental organization in 2027, the Joint Petroleum Cooperative Commission (JPCC).