How Iran and China shaped the war chessboard

China’s dual-track response to the US–Israeli war on Iran reflects a broader geopolitical and economic strategy that stretches from the battlefield to the global financial system.

The Cradle

China is officially responding on two parallel tracks to the Epstein Syndicate – or US-Israeli – war on Iran via a diplomatic spokesman and a military spokesman.

Translation: China sees the war both as an extreme political/diplomatic tension and a military threat.

China’s military spokesman, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) colonel, speaks with metaphors. It was he who said explicitly that the US is “addicted to war”, with only 250 years of History and only 16 years of peace.

He clearly positions the US as a global threat. And clearly, also as a moral (italics mine) threat.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is firmly focused on establishing a long-lasting connection between Marxism and Confucianism.

The key contribution of Confucius to political thinking is the precise use of language. Only the one who speaks with precise metaphors and moral weight is able to govern a nation.

So China is carefully developing a steady moral and ethical criticism of the American war of choice on Iran. Stressing how this is the attack of a nation that has lost its moral compass.

The Global South totally understands the message.

Additionally, facts on the battlefield show how China has also changed the rules of war in Iran.

The Iranian grid is now fully connected to the BeiDou satellite system. That explains how Iran now strikes with precision, and every move by the US-Israeli combo faces a China-tech Digital Wall (over 40 BeiDou satellites in orbit). That accounts for excellent Iranian missile accuracy and increased resistance to jamming.

As part of their 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, China has also supplied Iran with long-range radars, integrated with satellite systems. The key takeaway is Iran’s now much shorter response time compared to the 12-day war.

Russia has helped on a parallel track, allowing Iran to apply in spades what Russia learned in Ukraine about western systems such as Patriot and IRIS-T. It’s not only about mass-drone saturation tactics; it’s learning the Russian way of coordinating drone swarms with ballistic missile volleys. That’s exactly what’s in – devastating – effect in the latest stages of Operation True Promise IV.

Playing Go: It’s all about the petroyuan

Now let’s focus on the crucial Strait of Hormuz gambit. The key move is Iran only allowing transit for oil tankers whose cargo has been settled in petroyuan. No dollars. No euros. Only yuan.

In fact, China had already started to end the Bretton Woods/petrodollar system in December 2022, when Beijing invited the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) petro-monarchies to trade oil and gas on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Now, couple all of the above with the Chinese 15th Five-Year-Plan, just discussed and approved in Beijing.

Talk about an in-depth systemic vision.

In a quite holistic way, Beijing planners set GDP growth at four percent; the digital economy advancing to 12.5 percent of GDP; green energy solutions at 25 percent; surface water quality at 85 percent; an avalanche of high-value patents; all that and more, equally tabled, with hard targets to be achieved and binding indicators all the way to 2030.

This means the Chinese are treating economy, energy security, ecology, education, and health care as if they are organs of the same fit body. That is how urbanization fuels productivity: a lot of investment in R&D fuels more and more patents; patents fuel the digital economy; and green energy solutions fuel strategic independence.

The latest Five-Year Plan conclusively shows how China is meticulously planning to be the leader of the coming tech future. And this goes way beyond 2030, all the way to mid-century.

It’s no wonder that smashing the petrodollar plays a key role in this process of changing the current system of international relations. Iran is now offering it on a plate to China, by replacing the petrodollar with the petroyuan in the most critical chokepoint on the planet, through which transits 20 percent of all global oil.

Iran’s play is not military; it’s financially (italics mine) nuclear. What makes it all easier is that Iran is already offering the model for the rest of the Global South to follow: nearly 90 percent of Tehran’s crude exports are settled in yuan via the CIPS payment system.

The Global South may eventually lock in the very simple model. Tehran is not saying the Strait of Hormuz is blocked. It’s blocked only to the hostile Epstein Syndicate – the US – and its minions trading in petrodollars. Shipping lanes are being turned in real time into political filters. As the Global South migrates to the petroyuan, the hegemonic petrodollar – since 1974 – drops dead.

By now, every trader on the planet knows how the petrodollar works. After the 1973 oil shock, the GCC and OPEC agreed in 1974 that oil could only be traded in US dollars.

Oil exporters must necessarily recycle their dollar profits back into US Treasury bonds and stocks. That reinforces the role of the US dollar as reserve currency; finances US tech investments; finances the industrial-military complex, and their Forever Wars; and most of all, de facto finances the – unpayable – US debt.

China, Russia, and Iran, as BRICS members, happen to be on the frontline of advancing alternative payment systems; crucially, that includes bypassing the petrodollar.

So this is way more than control of oil – the alleged rationale behind the shambolic, unplanned “excursion” (Trump terminology) into Iran.

For all practical purposes, the facts on the ground are already spelling Major Fail. It’s the counterpunch that is on a whole new level.

The IRGC goes Sun Tzu

Weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz is Sun Tzu, revised by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Both a connectivity corridor – the Strait of Hormuz – and a currency – the yuan – are now weapons of imperial destruction. Who needs a nuclear bomb?

What’s at stake is the control of the global financial system – way beyond 2030, all the way to mid-century and beyond. What we are watching in real time is the Persians playing chess – in which they excel – but with elements of Chinese weiqi (“Go” in English).

Go is organic. When the little stones used in the game connect, they mold shape and long-term control across the entire board. In our case, the geopolitical/geoeconomic chessboard. It’s all about positioning, patience, accumulating advantages, and managing strategy.

That’s the “secret” of why the war on Iran now offers China the decisive move. Beijing has been shaping the chessboard for years with infinite patience: creating a set of multi-lateral institutions; playing a key role in BRICS and SCO; building the New Silk Roads (BRI); investing in alternative settlement systems; turbo-charging its diplomacy.

Go is extremely rational. If you shape the board correctly, you will not fail. The game plays itself. That’s where we are now. And that’s why the Imperial Vociferator, along with his sycophants, enablers, and vassals, is stunned and petrified: a prisoner of his own quagmire of hubris.