Jeff Pao
Beijing is now placing energy security at the top of its strategic agenda following the February 28 confirmation of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death.
China now faces a halt, enforced by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz – a route through which transits a substantial share of its crude imports. The result will be sharply increased shipping risks, inflated insurance premiums and higher costs of oil deliveries to the world’s largest manufacturing economy. A potential change of regime in Tehran also threatens the opaque flow of discounted Iranian crude to China, according to some Chinese commentators.
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