Why is China hiding its oil tankers from US trackers?

Signs Beijing may be importing Iranian oil as Trump’s two biggest foreign policy headaches converge

In early June, a Chinese-owned supertanker abruptly went dark in the Indian Ocean, the tracking system signalling its course apparently deactivated.

It was not the first ship to vanish from the monitors. The deactivation of transponders that generate a unique ID issued to ships by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has become increasingly familiar in recent weeks to the companies that track tankers.

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2NCIkLq