the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
April 20, 2026
This article is translated from the April 17 issue, #3011 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.
Chinese officials have repeatedly called on the U.S. to end the war in Iran. The war has consequences for China.
China extracts slightly more than a quarter of its oil domestically. But it buys the rest from abroad, primarily from the Persian Gulf states, which supply nearly half of its needs. This oil, originating from Iranian oil terminals, as well as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Qatar, passes through the Strait of Hormuz. However, unlike its neighbors such as Thailand and the Philippines, which have declared an energy emergency, China is not facing any shortage. Reportedly China built up approximately 100 days’ worth of reserves. It has diversified its suppliers, with Russia becoming its main one now. To date, the impact of the crisis has been limited to a 20% increase in fuel prices; both pricing and supply management are under state control. Supplies from the Middle East would have to be disrupted for several more months to pose a significant problem.
The war against Iran primarily affects China, due to its central role in Middle Eastern trade. Long considered the preserve of American imperialism, the Middle East is a prime market for China because of the wealth concentrated in the Gulf monarchies. Since 2024, China has been the leading trading partner of the Gulf states, ahead of the U.S. and Europe, exchanging almost 260 billion dollars annually in goods and capital with them. At the heart of this trade, of course, was Iran. Ninety percent of Iranian oil is exported to China—paid for not in dollars but in yuan, the Chinese currency. In return, Iran purchases tens of billions of dollars worth of goods annually from China. But China’s commercial power has expanded far beyond Iran, with investments in all the Gulf states. China spent nearly 20 billion dollars on real estate development in Saudi Arabia last year. Chinese oil companies have invested in Qatari gas and have developed pipelines and storage facilities throughout the region. In 2016, Chinese shipping company Cosco invested nearly one billion dollars in a container port in Khalifa in the UAE and will operate this port for 35 years. Kuwait signed a four-billion-dollar contract with a Chinese company in 2022 for the construction and operation of a similar port. In the UAE, several Chinese companies are building the brand-new railway network. All of this infrastructure serves as a gateway for Chinese imports. If the war continues and spreads, these investments could be wiped out.
In reality, the Middle East has become a major arena of economic confrontation between the U.S. and China. This began well before the war against Iran. This war, and the military resources deployed in the region, show that the U.S. intends to maintain its dominant position there.