Operation Epic Fury, the American prong of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, has significantly disrupted China's strategic architecture in the Middle East, degrading Iran's proxy network and exposing Beijing's inability to protect its strategic partners. This operation challenges China's two-decade use of Iran as a "counter-pivot" to keep the United States strategically mired in the region.
This strategy allowed China to modernize the People’s Liberation Army and advance Taiwan contingency planning, fueled by $140 billion in discounted oil and dual-use weapons technology. The disruption forces China to reevaluate its posture, including in the Taiwan Strait, recognizing the vulnerability of its counter-pivot to American hard power. While achieving vital objectives, the U.S. faces real costs in depleted weapons stockpiles and diverted Indo-Pacific assets, potentially becoming a long-term structural issue. Iran's role as a systemic challenger to the American-led order, through its geography, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and proxy network (Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis), was central to Beijing's revisionist project.
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