Two months ago, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, promised it would be a “big year” for China-US relations. He was right, but perhaps not in the way he expected. Wang was speaking before a planned visit by the US president to Beijing in March, which would have been Donald Trump’s first trip to China since 2017. But the trip, and a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was kicked back by several weeks after Trump decided to launch strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a war in the Middle…
Tag: US-Israel war on Iran
Who can claim victory if Iran ceasefire holds? An early winner is China
Beijing’s powerbrokers are credited with winning Iran over, although one analyst says they were ‘pushing an open door’ Middle East crisis – live updates As the world struggles to make sense of what, if anything, was achieved by the ceasefire deal announced by the US and Iran on Tuesday, one major power that stands to win regardless is China. Beijing’s powerbrokers are being credited with pushing Iran towards agreeing to the ceasefire, bolstering its status as a regional mediator. In China’s tightly censored domestic media, articles basking in the glory…
As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards
Oil stands at about $110 a barrel and some forecasts have predicted it could reach $150. Food prices are on the rise and are expected to leap further owing to the fertiliser supply crunch, leading the World Food Programme USA to warn that global food insecurity could reach record levels, with 45 million more people pushed into acute hunger. Industries from steel to chemicals have alerted markets that they face shortages and soaring costs, while households across the world are feeling the pinch – people have been told to turn…
A day in the life of Asia’s fuel crisis
4.30am Kaipara, New ZealandJames Brady, farmer We’ve got a small dairy farm, north of Auckland. We milk 200 cows and have a small amount of beef cattle and young stock. We start about 4.30am in the morning – checking cows, feeding, milking and then we do it again in the afternoon. Most of the day is spent tending to stock, moving animals, and we’re busy renewing pastures at the moment. Diesel is our main fuel – we run two tractors and machinery. We have quad bikes that run on petrol.…
China’s ‘teapot’ oil refineries keep economy brewing – but surging crude prices leave them strained
The towns that are the bulwark of China’s energy security can, at a moment of global crisis, appear deceptively quiet. Trucks carrying oil trundle along wide-open highways that have little traffic, while a few boarded-up shops in crumbling low-rise buildings hint at a long-forgotten local buzz. A ramshackle noodle shop serving hand-pulled ribbons of dough was empty at lunchtime, save for a few construction workers and a teacher watching videos on Douyin, the social media platform, with his meal. But its boss wasn’t worried about low footfall. Peak time was…
Malaysian vessels permitted to travel through strait of Hormuz, country’s PM says after Iran talks
Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday he had spoken to the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Turkey and other regional countries and that Malaysian vessels were now being allowed to pass through the strait of Hormuz. In a televised address, Anwar thanked Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, for allowing the passage of Malaysian ships. “We are now in the process of releasing the Malaysian oil tankers and the workers involved so that they may continue their journey home,” he said. Malaysia, despite being an oil-producing nation, is highly dependent on…
The Guardian view on China and Iran: the war poses bigger questions for Beijing than where to get its oil | Editorial
For years, official Chinese rhetoric on Iran invoked their shared historical status as grand civilisations that have struggled against western aggression. Bilateral ties date back more than half a century. In 2021, they signed a comprehensive strategic agreement pledging $400bn of Chinese investment. And China’s economy is already flagging; it has just set its lowest growth target since 1991, underlining the importance of stability for Beijing. So its muted response since the US and Israel launched their war is striking. Beijing condemned the attack, but it was Washington that postponed…
Trump’s trip to meet Xi Jinping in China rescheduled for May due to Iran war
Donald Trump will meet Xi Jinping in May during the US president’s first visit to China in eight years, a closely watched trip that had been postponed due to the Iran war. Trump was initially slated to travel next week, but will now visit Beijing on 14 and 15 May, he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. Trump said he would host the Chinese leader in a reciprocal visit in Washington later this year. Trump wrote: “Our Representatives are finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits. I look…
Tuesday briefing: With the horror of conflict throughout the globe, how likely is world war three?
Good morning. The world is at war. From the trenches of eastern Ukraine to the missile-streaked skies of the Gulf, a growing proportion of humanity is living under the horror of conflict. For some observers, there are gnawing fears that the worst is yet to come. The apparent collapse of the rules-based international order, the irrelevance of institutions designed to uphold it, and the interconnectedness of the fighting have sparked warnings that we could be at the beginning of a third world war. Indeed, half of Britons polled in a…
China has been preparing for a global energy crisis for years. It is paying off now
Xi Jinping has been preparing for a crisis like this for years. China must secure its energy supply “in its own hands”, its president was reported to have said during a visit to one of its vast oilfields in 2021. The US-Israel war on Iran plunged the Middle East into a deep conflict, with the strait of Hormuz – one of the most important waterways in global trade – all but closed and key energy facilities across the region under attack. Oil exports from the Middle East have tumbled 61%…