China Has Much to Lose in Iran

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The U.S. military action against Iran continues and the question is how soon American forces can open up the Strait of Hormuz. On this episode of Potomac Watch, Kate Odell talks with war scholar John Spencer about the next phases of the conflict and how the war is testing Beijing's strategic bet on Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.3	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
0:39.9	We've been covering the U.S.
0:44.8	military action in Iran closely, and today we're diving back in to talk about the campaign and how it's going, including what it might take to reopen the Straits of Hormuz.
0:49.5	We'll also talk about a larger looming strategic question in the background, which is,
0:57.4	what does the Chinese Communist Party make of the war in Iran?
0:58.8	Welcome to Potomac Watch.
0:59.6	I'm Kate O'Dell.
1:01.1	I'm filling in as your host today.
1:04.5	We're joined by one of our contributors, John Spencer.
1:08.9	John is the chairman of war studies at the Madison Policy Forum, and he's a particular expert on urban warfare.
1:10.9	He's the author of several books, including a manual for Ukrainian civilians defending their home
1:15.4	cities against Russian invasion. John has a piece of commentary on our pages this week that I'd
1:20.3	commend you all to read called China Has a Lot to Lose in the U.S. Israel War on Iran.
1:26.9	That's what we'll discuss today. Thanks so much for joining
	...

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