This is John Batchel, conversation with Colonel Grant Nushe,

from United States Marine Corps retired, author of The Very Important when China Attacks,

asking the Colonel, what are the advantages and disadvantages Beijing sees in the tangle over the

Strait of Hormuz and the Iran War?

Grant is comprehensive, but mentions that China is not quite as worried as they're acting.

Here's Grant Nushamon, China's advantages and few disadvantages.

Few worries.

More tonight.

I'm sure they've got America's best interests in mind here.

I think they're going to talk about how they're going to bolster each other's respective positions.

And that will be continued all-out Chinese support and North Korean support with the permission of the Chinese for the Russians in Ukraine.

The Chinese would like to actually have the Americans stuck in the Middle East. They're

glad to have it. Combined that with Ukraine and they see their great enemy. It's pretty well

occupied everywhere but in Asia. But China's always trying to play the sort of the dual game,

acting like a peacemaker while at the same time quietly helping

the Iranians restocking their missile fuel, for example, sending in drones and providing

the targeting data for the Iranians as well. And they have to deal with the oil problem,

though, as you noted, so they don't like the idea that so much of the free world's oil is actually either under the control or the influence of the United States.

So that is a problem for them, but it's probably manageable.

I think they're less vulnerable to a Middle East oil cut off than we think,

although it is a huge problem for them,

but it's not quite the killer that we would think it would be.

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