I'm John Batchler. I welcome Jack Burnham, senior research analysts at the Foundation for

the Defense of Democracy.

My eyes on the People's Republic of China.

The war in the Middle East, the Straits of Hormuz blocked, the lack of confidence about the length of this conflict,

the uncertainty of all the markets right now, underline, underline, underline the People's Republic of China

because the major recipient and benefactor of Iranian oil these many years is Asia, and at the

center of that, the People's Republic of China. To my information, there's not now oil

coming out of the Gulf. There's also other elements that are not coming out of the Gulf that China depends upon, such as sulfur for copper processing, such as bromine from the Dead Sea, which is part of the manufacturing of microchips, all the fertilizer foundations, including urea, not coming out, all of that for Africa,

for Asia. That puts a burden on the budget in Beijing. However, the question is, how is Beijing

anticipating what comes next in a war that's being fought by the U.S. and Israel from the air.

And are they supporting the Iranian regime?

There's indication that Moscow, the Kremlin, the no-limits partner of Beijing,

has come out to say, we support the Iranian people, we support the Islamic Republic of Iran, we congratulate

the new Ayatollah. What has China said? Jack, a very good evening to you. You describe the

support from Beijing as rhetorical and lukewarm. How so? Good evening to you, Jack. Thank you for

having me. I think so far China's reaction

has been primarily rhetorical, and I think it has been primarily lukewarm, although I think there are

a few distinctions that may cut against the grain. I think, first of all, I think it's critical to

put side by side China's reaction to the 12-day war in June

and to the current crisis that's now unfolding. During the 12-day war, China was much more eager

to criticize, particularly Israel's conduct during the war. China called the war natural

outgrowth of the IDF's military machine, was much more

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