>> They still import a lot

I don't think it's common knowledge how much they dropped imports since the Iran / straight of hormuz crisis.

Back at the start of that conflict there were a lot of breathless takes about what catastrophe was in store in a few weeks time, and what materialised was bad but not in anything like the same league as what was predicted.

The thing that wasn't accounted for in the analysis at the time was just how rapidly and by how much China could suppress its appetite for oil imports.