US News Metro Long Island Politics

Sports NFL MLB Olympics NBA NHL College Football College Basketball WNBA

Business Personal Finance

Entertainment TV Movies Music Celebrities Awards Theater

Lifestyle Weird But True Sex & Relationships Viral Trends Human Interest Parenting Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Travel

Health Wellness Fitness Health Care Medicine Men’s Health Women’s Health Mental Health Nutrition

Science Space Environment Wildlife Archaeology

Today’s Paper Covers Columnists Horoscopes Crosswords & Games Sports Odds Podcasts Careers

Email Newsletters Official Store Home Delivery Tips

Switch between CA and NY editions here.

The Iran war has given Trump his best hand against China — now he shouldn’t fold

President Donald Trump should say the quiet part out loud: China’s years of economic, technological and diplomatic support for Iran did not merely underwrite the regime’s malign activity. It accelerated it, financed it and made striking the Islamic Republic necessary to defend the interests of the United States and its partners around the world.

President Trump should rally America’s allies in Europe and the Gulf Arab states behind this message leading up to trade talks with Xi Jinping next month in Beijing. He should make clear that, without China, the Iranian regime would have never been able to pay for waves of military strikes on Israel, target US bases in the region or shut down Gulf energy infrastructure.

And he should go one step further.

Trump should establish that every country negatively impacted by China’s role as the world’s largest sponsor of sanctions evasion is equally impacted by the Chinese Communist Party’s market-distorting trade practices.

In this sense, the strikes on Iran have given Trump an opening to extract concessions from Beijing on a range of issues fundamental to the structure of the global economy. He should therefore leverage America’s economic advantages in energy, trade and finance to not only hold Beijing accountable for its support of the regime in Iran, but to cut at the heart of China’s economic model as well.

First, Trump should further target Beijing’s appetite for sanctioned oil.

For years, China has sustained its state-subsidized export machine partly on the back of deeply discounted sanctioned crude from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. These sanctioned barrels accounted for roughly a third of China’s crude imports in 2025, saving the country billions.

Trump has already removed Venezuela as a source of illicit oil flows, but he can do more to target Russia and Iran. Even amid the strikes, Iranian ships are making their way to China.

As for Russia, it supplies over 10% of China’s imported crude. Cutting off these flows would compete with other administration priorities, such as relieving supply shock pressures on oil consumers generated by the war in Iran,........

© New York Post