On March 26, 2018, China launched a crude futures contract in a bid to gain more clout in the global market. China has two goals. The basic one is to help its companies hedge against volatility. More ambitiously, China hopes to create a standard for oil pricing as a rival to Brent in Europe and West Texas Intermediate in America--a standard that reflects its own supply and demand. The experience of the past year sounds very encouraging. The trading volumes of Shanghai crude oil futures at Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) has already overtaken those for the Dubai Mercantile Exchange's oil contract, previously the world's third-most popular oil benchmark, as well as less-followed contracts traded in Tokyo and in Singapore. (a) Why are Yuan crude oil futures beneficial to the hedging activities of Chinese companies? (b) Would the Yuan-denominated oil futures be helpful to Chinese hedgers amid the trade frictions between the US and China? (c) How could Chinese oil futures be beneficial to countries under U.S. sanctions such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela