As the United States and Iran face a military conflict in the Gulf, China seems to be keeping a low profile. But looks are deceiving. Rixa Fürsen talks to China expert Felix Lee about Beijing’s two-pronged strategy. Why does China block resolutions in the United Nations Security Council even though it depends heavily on oil imports from the Gulf region? Lee analyzes China’s “energy transition”, which is primarily driven by security policy and why the country’s large reserves make it more resilient to the current oil price shock than the West.
Felix Lee also describes the Chinese methods of encirclement and undermining. As Donald Trump withdraws the US military from the Indo-Pacific to fight Iran, China is using this power vacuum to expand. Especially for Taiwan. He also highlights the extraordinary relationship between Trump and Xi Jinping ahead of a planned state visit to Beijing. From rare earths to Chinese drones that are suddenly making US defense systems look obsolete in the Gulf.
If Western diplomacy fails, China may end up changing cards. Lee and Fürsen discuss why Beijing is pushing Pakistan forward as a conservative and when the economic damage caused by blocked global trade becomes so great that China itself should intervene offensively in the conflict.
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