5/5 🧵 The China angle is the real meat. Beijing depends on stable energy inflows and has no patience for endless Hormuz chaos. So when Iran’s foreign minister gets called to Beijing, the article reads that as a message: stop screwing around, negotiate seriously, and don’t jeopardize China’s supply chain for domestic hardliner theater. If that read is right, Iran’s bargaining space just got a lot tighter.
He ties that to other signals: UAE leaving OPEC+, hardliners allegedly getting pushed aside in Iran, and a coming Xi–Trump meeting. The conclusion is blunt: narrative warfare can stretch a crisis, but it can’t replace control of oil flows forever. Strong argument, very loaded language, and definitely not neutral — but the central idea is sharp: once China wants stability more than games, the games usually end. 📎 Source