This weekend, the U.S.-Israel alliance, now in its 10th day of Operation Epic Fury, pummeled Iranian fuel storage facilities, sending black smoke billowing over Tehran and nearby cities. The strikes aimed to cripple Iran’s military-industrial complex and halt the illicit flow of oil to China, which has repeatedly bought from Tehran in defiance of Western sanctions.
By continuing to purchase Iranian oil, China is supporting a state sponsor of terrorism, making it complicit in the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Americans, all while claiming the mantle of non-interference, a principle that asserts it does not meddle in the internal politics of other nations.
China’s purported neutrality is a myth. As the world’s second-largest economy, with 1.4 billion people, 400 million-500 million of whom enjoy a middle-class lifestyle, Beijing wields its economic power as both carrot and stick.
When Australia investigated the origins of COVID‑19, China slapped an 80% tariff on barley, costing billions and forcing Canberra to partially reverse course. When the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia in 2016, Beijing hiked border fees until the Mongolian government apologized and banned future visits.
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Major multinational corporations have also felt Beijing’s reach. In 2021, Nike, Adidas, and Burberry faced a coordinated boycott after raising concerns about forced labor in Xinjiang cotton, with products removed from Chinese e‑commerce platforms and social media campaigns pressuring consumers to avoid their brands. The American and British companies suffered major revenue losses, and investors pressed for market diversification.
These examples illustrate a broader pattern rooted in China’s historical experiences. China learned early that dependence on great powers is dangerous, a lesson made painfully clear during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. At the time, China relied heavily on Moscow for technology, engineers, and industrial support. When the split occurred, Soviet advisors and engineers abruptly left, taking crucial expertise with them. Major joint projects, including steel plants, factories, and power plants, were halted or left incomplete, leaving China technologically isolated and struggling to maintain or develop heavy industry and military capabilities. This experience pushed Beijing toward industrial self-reliance and shaped its long-term approach to economic and strategic independence.
With that lesson in mind, China has long sought energy supplies beyond the reach of U.S. influence, cultivating discounted crude imports from Iran — and previously from Venezuela — and building deep ties with Russia. Oil from Venezuela once accounted for a noticeable share of China’s crude, but after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro in early 2026 and redirected Venezuelan exports toward American channels, those Venezuelan flows have shrunk sharply, and China is increasingly pivoting to Russia and other major Middle Eastern producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. It is also sourcing crude from countries like Canada and Mexico to help meet its diverse energy needs.
China’s economic footprint props up regimes that threaten U.S. interests. Its oil purchases and loans allowed Maduro’s Venezuela to survive sanctions, delay financial collapse, and sustain a corrupt government linked to the “Cartel de los Soles,” which traffics narcotics into the United States. Hundreds of thousands of tons of Venezuelan crude went to China, accounting for 50% to 80% of the country’s oil exports at times. Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from drug overdoses. And while fentanyl is the primary culprit, the broader narcotics flows from these regimes are directly enabled by Chinese financing.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used Chinese-backed resources to empower Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen — groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the U.S. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a coordinated attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, and taking nearly 251 hostages, 12 of whom were American. China has never condemned these attacks, making it complicit in the resulting bloodshed.
U.S. patience, however, is not limitless. President Donald Trump campaigned on securing America’s borders and combating drug trafficking, linking national security to both immigration and transnational crime. In early 2026, Operation Absolute Resolve saw U.S. special forces capture Maduro in Caracas after precision strikes on Venezuelan defenses, disrupting narcotics networks and stabilizing the region. At the same time, the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran’s military infrastructure and leadership, signaling that Washington will no longer tolerate regimes that threaten American interests, including those backed by Chinese financing, pursuing nuclear capabilities or proxy operations to export Iran’s radical revolutionary ideology.
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Yet China could profit from prolonged Middle East conflicts. Toppling the Khamenei regime could require boots on the ground and countless American lives, with no guarantee of a less fanatical government emerging. Beijing knows a drawn-out war could exhaust the U.S. public’s appetite for intervention, creating an opening for China to advance its strategic goals.
The most urgent of these goals is Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made reunification a personal and national priority, calling it a historic mission that must be fulfilled by as early as 2027, or by the end of his tenure. Securing Taiwan would give China control over critical sea lanes and advanced technology, including semiconductors, while cementing the legitimacy of the CCP at home. Analysts note that Xi consistently frames Taiwan as “non-negotiable,” signaling that China will act decisively once it calculates the U.S. is distracted or unwilling to intervene.
The lesson is clear: China’s economic leverage and strategic patience, combined with American hesitancy, could allow Beijing to reshape the global order on its terms. If the U.S. does not act decisively to counter both China’s financing of rogue regimes and its ambitions in the Pacific, the consequences for Israel, Taiwan, and the broader free world could be catastrophic.
Derek Levine is a professor at Monroe University and King Graduate School. He is the author of the book, China’s Path to Dominance: Preparing for Confrontation with the United States.
