Look at the charts on China’s “big three” oil producers. These tickers are sick, sick, sick.

There is talk that China is going to impose a 10% tax on commodity producers, starting with oil but possibly extending to coal, gas, copper and so on.

While not confirmed, this is a hot topic for the “big three” of PetroChina Company Limited (PTR), CNOOC Limited (CEO) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SNP):

The fact is that China did introduce a trial resource tax last June. While all of this hinges on higher prices and levels of production that would ordinarily imply good times for producers, it would still put a ceiling on their earnings at a moment when they are already subsidizing the Chinese infrastructure build out to nowhere.

This might be why commodity markets have traded choppily lately — if not flat out in despair.

Watch the oil group, and if this tax becomes a reality for them, look out Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (YZC) and Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd (ACH).