Why China Thinks It Can Resist Trump’s Economic Threats on Iran
New York Times · LC · trust 55/100
Beijing can squeeze U.S. critical mineral supplies and has enough oil to withstand the loss of Iranian crude, Chinese analysts say.
Listen · 5:38 min Share full article Oil storage tanks and facilities in Shanghai in March. China has large stockpiles of oil that make it less vulnerable to energy supply disruptions. Credit... Go Nakamura/Reuters By David Pierson and Berry Wang
For decades, China has defied Western sanctions on Iranian oil by buying up to 90 percent of Tehran’s oil exports. China has also supplied Iran with technology and raw materials to build an arsenal of missiles and drones.
But Beijing has reasons to feel confident it can withstand Mr. Trump’s latest warning — if it is ever fulfilled. And increasingly, Chinese analysts see the war in Iran, which the White House seems unable to end on favorable terms, as a sign of America’s mounting weakness .
“This threat reveals how desperate the Trump administration has become on the issue of Iran,” said Wu Xinbo, a leading American studies scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai, who advises China’s foreign ministry.
“They issue this threat, not because they think it is workable, but because they have no other options,” he said, to get out of this “self-created dilemma.”
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Trump vowed to inflict an “economic D-Day” on Iran, as well as to punish countries that “provide any type of lifeline” to the country. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent implied that it was in China’s best interest to cooperate.
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