Is Taiwan The Only Leverage The U.S. Has In Getting China To Toe The Line In Ira
There is always a winner in any major global oil crisis. In 1973/74, it was Saudi Arabia and its OPEC brothers who shifted the balance of power in the market away from the previous arrangement dominated by the West’s ‘Seven Sisters’ to the oil producers of the Middle East. After the 2014-2016 Oil Price War, it was the U.S. whose earlier nascent shale oil sector resisted the threat to its very…
The latest rupture in the global oil market order following the U.S. operation against Iran has yielded a clear winner: China. The sanctions announced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent aim to financially isolate Iran by targeting key sectors of its economy and cutting off its economic lifelines. China has shown it can handle such sanctions before, employing old and new tactics to continue trading with Iran.
These include using non-systemic commercial banks, small independent regional refiners, and the China-Iran 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement. Additionally, China controls a significant portion of global rare earth processing and heavy rare earths, which are crucial for the U.S. military, manufacturing, and green energy transition.
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