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Comment by idiotsecant | Hacker News Reader

The threat to the US is China feeling like they need to act. The loss of Persian gulf oil is an existential threat to the Chinese economy. This could end very, very bad.

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Nah. So far we haven't hit Iran's oil export infrastructure. If China makes a serious move we blow it up. We can also close the straight ourselves and claim it's for protection.

https://understandingwar.org/research/middle-east/iran-updat...

They've started bombing the oil in infrastructure

I ain't reading all that, but if you're referring to the strike on the oil storage facility in Tehran, AFAICT that's not for export. It's local consumption. We haven't, to my knowledge, hit oil exports yet.

Fair enough, but if the local supplies are disrupted, export oil will be repurposed for local supply, to avoid issues with the regime.

I don't think oil works like that. Infra takes a long time to reroute, especially in war time. Exports are nearly all of Iran's economy. They can't turn it off or they starve.

Why isn't China acting. Putin showed the world is not going to do anything when an aggressor invades. Trump is doing it now. Nobody stopped Israel. What is China waiting for?

I think they will act if this stretches into a lengthy engagement. They want to see the US solidly committed.

They are helping Iran militarily and diplomatically. The last attack on Iran ended in 12 days. The Americans or Israelis haven't send any boots as a proper invasion requires. So they are just waiting and watching.

China is starting to act.[1][2] There's a summit with Xi and Trump coming up. China is pushing for a cease fire with Iran. China has also stopped aggressive flights over Taiwan airspace for the last week, for whatever reason.

Diplomats on the China side are worried about the Trump administrations's amateurish approach to diplomacy. "... Trump’s reluctance to delegate, disdain for process and focus on quick wins, banking instead on personal magnetism and his “gut” as summit organising principles. ... “You have a handful of people who have never done this before, putting together what may be the most consequential trip in the president’s administration on a wing and a prayer. The Chinese are beyond worried. They’re apoplectic.” - South China Morning Post.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/07/china/china-us-iran-wang-yi-i...

[2] https://www.scmp.com/topics/2026-trump-xi-summit

[3] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344769/trump-xi-sum...

[4] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344769/trump-xi-sum...

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