Strait of Hormuz Blockade: How China Should Respond | by Ye Yan

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Trump’s announcement on Sunday of a blockade against Iran included a warning over Tehran’s tolls in the Strait of Hormuz: “no one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”Although it is not yet clear what the blockade will mean in practice, the implicit threat against Chinese shipping is unmistakable. Yet again, questions around Beijing’s red lines—and how it would respond if they were crossed—come to the fore.Chinese commentary on the blockade has so far been sparse and even popular nationalist commentators like Chairman Rabbit have tended to stress China’s resilience and the fact that the blockade appears to narrowly target Iranian ports, rather than wider commercial shipping through the Strait.In contrast, today’s piece by Ye Yan offers clear recommendations for how China should handle the Strait, alongside an unusually disapproving view of his country’s drift towards accommodating Iranian tolls.The piece seems to have been written shortly before Trump announced the blockade. Its title—As the US and Iran Make the Rare Move of “Joining Forces” to Block the Strait of Hormuz, What Should China Do?—now feels especially prescient. Originally the author meant something more specific: the convergence of a US strategy to drain East Asia’s industrial strength with Iran’s own recent unlawful moves against the law of the sea.The willingness to call out Iran is notable, as is the reading of the war as part of a US strategy directed at China. Hawks in Washington tend to take this view and Chinese commentators are also usually quick to read China-focused strat…