Trump has hit Iran, but he has put China in his crosshairs

As Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, caught fire next The US-led attack on SaturdayChina’s energy lifeline is going up in smoke.

Ignoring international sanctions, oil-hungry China has long served as an ayatollah The main buyer of the Khamenei regime.

China was certainly a cheap customer, paying well below the prevailing market price for the smuggled Iranian oil.

Not only that, he insisted on paying in Chinese yuanNot dollars, ensuring that money flows back to China.

Beijing’s impressive offers convinced Iranians to spend billions on Chinese military and communications equipment – such as “cutting-edge” radar systems that are now… It lies in smoldering ruins After failing to detect incoming US air strikes.

But the decapitation of Iran’s leadership and the destruction of its Chinese-made defense arsenal are not Beijing’s worst problems in the Middle East.

Reckless Iranian missile bombing It united the entire region against it, causing a massive loss of face for its main international backer.

Two years ago, China enjoyed high status in the Arab world.

In March 2023, it brokered a normalization deal between Shiite Iran and its long-time Sunni rival, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih praised the new power broker in the Middle East.

He declared that a multipolar world had emerged, and that cooperation between the Gulf states and China would be “an important part of the new order.”

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, China’s role in this new order seems to be shrinking day by day.

It is not just that Iran, the anchor of China’s ambitions in the Middle East, is now an international pariah.

This is only the latest in a long line of recent geopolitical setbacks for America’s main adversary.

China’s problems began shortly after Trump returned to office, as his tariffs severely damaged Beijing’s trade profits.

Trump then targeted China’s incursion into Latin America, starting with the Panama Canal.

He warned the government of Panama that if it did not secure this vital strategic waterway, Trump would do so.

Only the Supreme Court of Panama has The Chinese company’s lease contracts were terminated Managing Atlantic and Pacific ports, and ending China’s ability to close the Panama Canal at will.

Venezuela was next.

The famous raid that also captured the country’s drug lord Cutting off China’s supply of cheap Venezuelan oil From that country.

Moreover, it has wiped out billions of dollars in Chinese-made military equipment, effectively ending China’s influence over the rest of the system.

Then came Greenland, towards which China was already making overtures.

Confirming that control over the giant island was Vital to the defense of the United StatesTrump ignored the discomfort of European elites at the possibility of stripping small Denmark of its colony.

His heated rhetoric succeeded in achieving what he had wanted all along: de facto sovereignty over the parts of the island needed for missile defense or resource development.

This would certainly include any areas that China might now, or in the future, view with envy.

With the United States Cut off oil supplies For the island nation of Cuba, the liberalization of another major client state of China has only just begun.

It is almost inevitable that this story will end not with an invasion, but with a compliant Cuban regime eager to cooperate with the United States — if only to keep the lights on.

Incidentally, another geopolitical setback for China.

Seeing the style yet?

From Panama to Venezuela, from Greenland to Iran, the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place.

Trump thinks very big.

As US energy production increases, China is deprived not only of cheap oil from Venezuela and Iran, but also of the ability to pay for it through printing. RMB.

Beijing will have to pay the full price of its oil to US-owned refineries in US dollars.

Efforts led by China and Russia Exchange the dollar Because the world’s reserve currency is dead.

As Trump strengthens his alliances with Japan and other Asian countries, China is losing allies that could cause problems for the United States – and losing control of vital sea lanes as well.

Iran is not the opening chapter in the larger competition against China: Trump is already in the fourth or fifth round of dismantling Beijing’s strategic architecture wherever it exists.

His goal is to transform the world order in America’s favor – which necessarily means dramatically reducing the malignant influence of communist China.

The ancient Chinese strategist Sunzi famously said: “Victory without fighting is the pinnacle of war.”

As far as China is concerned, one of Sunzi’s best students seems to be A yangguizi – A “foreign demon” named Donald J. Trump.

Stephen W. Mosher is president of the Population Research Institute and author of The Devil and Communist China (Tan Books).