China has been sending materials and weapons to the IRGC in exchange for cheap energy. Even with the Strait blockade, there are still alternative shadow supply networks that have been in place and working for years. There is a overland supply route from China thru Pakistan to Eastern Iran. Pakistan is a China puppet. Then there is the Caspian sea route where China and Russia both avoid sanctions shipping to Iran. Russia has also been sending weapons to Iran via the border crossing with Azerbaijan in the north of Iran marked as humanitarian aid. Some of the "aid" is most likely also from China. Russia really doesn't have much to spare in the way of finished weapons. They have their own supply problems with the war in Ukraine and their economy is not doing well.
In addition, China under the BRI, built a railway corridor from China to Iran, traversing Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. China is heavily invested in Iran so they do not want to see the regime fall and at the same time they want to prolong the US's engagement in the ME in order to open things up for them in the So China sea. There is virtually no oversight as to what is being shipped through this corridor which avoids the sanctions. All financial transactions are conducted using the Chinese yuan thus bypassing SWIFT. Interesting that their Hormuz tollbooth accepts only Bitcoin and the yuan as payment. Part of China's effort to create an alternative to the petrodollar - the petroyuan.
This railway was operational in May/June of last year. Israel the day before the ceasefire, targeted this supply route. Civilians were given notice to not use these railways prior to the strikes. A major bridge associated with the rail corridor was hit along side of several places on the railway line inside Iran. The highway, also a BRI project, was not yet open to the general public and was used by the IRGC to move supplies and equipment.
I would think that Trump could put some pressure on countries where the corridor traverses thru. He has put China on notice about supplying Iran with materials and military weapons. China has shipped missiles like the CM-302 that China touted as the "carrier killer." These were the missiles shot at the Lincoln and they failed miserably. A few were intercepted, but several went off course or exploded upon launch or in the air. Iran was not happy, but also realizes they don't have any other options to resupply themselves than to turn to China. The missiles were very recent acquisitions by Iran. China cannot explain it away by calling them dual use supplies and that they didn't know. The attack on the Lincoln exposed them.
Trump has been dismantling Xi's globalist expansion efforts one by one that China has built over the last decade of more.
Excellent post. I didn't know about the finance part, or I heard and forgot, so it's nice to see it explained clearly - more likely to remember in the future.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the US and Russia come to terms on trade and maintaining law and order in our corners of the globe.
I don't see that happening anytime soon as long as Xi is in the picture. Putin is not on equal footing with Xi since the Ukraine war started. Putin is the weaker partner in this relationship because Putin depends on China to keep them afloat. I recently heard that the Russian budget is hemorrhaging cash. Their sovereign wealth fund is being fast depleted just to fill the financial gaps and is soon to be gone - possibly in 6 months.
Moscow was recently put on an internet lockdown so that the Muscovites can't find out what is actually happening in the country with the Ukrainian hits on oil infrastructure and ports. Then there is the numbers of losses occuring on the front that are enormous. Sadly many Russian soldiers froze to death this winter because they simply were not outfitted properly. There is a lot of corruption in the Russian military. It has always been that way. Officers and commanders often sell the supplies meant for the troops. Russian soldiers have always been expendable to those in charge. I think its in their DNA. My mother's family is from Russia.
Putin I think is not sure how to extricate himself from the situation without losing his legitimacy among Russians. It is always difficult when negotiating a deal to end a conflict where it can be sold to the home crowd in such a way as to not cause the people to revolt when they finally find out what it has cost them. The Iranian regime is faced with the same problem - how to make capitulation sound like a win to remain in power.
I really do think that Xi convinced Putin to move forward with invading the Ukraine in the first place. Xi wanted to use the war to tie the US down somewhere other than the West Pacific. Xi has done the same thing with Iran - keep the US entrenched in the ME. So, China will continue to supply Iran with materials and weapons to prolong the conflict - otherwise the Iranian regime would have already collapsed.
China has been sending materials and weapons to the IRGC in exchange for cheap energy. Even with the Strait blockade, there are still alternative shadow supply networks that have been in place and working for years. There is a overland supply route from China thru Pakistan to Eastern Iran. Pakistan is a China puppet. Then there is the Caspian sea route where China and Russia both avoid sanctions shipping to Iran. Russia has also been sending weapons to Iran via the border crossing with Azerbaijan in the north of Iran marked as humanitarian aid. Some of the "aid" is most likely also from China. Russia really doesn't have much to spare in the way of finished weapons. They have their own supply problems with the war in Ukraine and their economy is not doing well.
In addition, China under the BRI, built a railway corridor from China to Iran, traversing Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. China is heavily invested in Iran so they do not want to see the regime fall and at the same time they want to prolong the US's engagement in the ME in order to open things up for them in the So China sea. There is virtually no oversight as to what is being shipped through this corridor which avoids the sanctions. All financial transactions are conducted using the Chinese yuan thus bypassing SWIFT. Interesting that their Hormuz tollbooth accepts only Bitcoin and the yuan as payment. Part of China's effort to create an alternative to the petrodollar - the petroyuan.
This railway was operational in May/June of last year. Israel the day before the ceasefire, targeted this supply route. Civilians were given notice to not use these railways prior to the strikes. A major bridge associated with the rail corridor was hit along side of several places on the railway line inside Iran. The highway, also a BRI project, was not yet open to the general public and was used by the IRGC to move supplies and equipment.
I would think that Trump could put some pressure on countries where the corridor traverses thru. He has put China on notice about supplying Iran with materials and military weapons. China has shipped missiles like the CM-302 that China touted as the "carrier killer." These were the missiles shot at the Lincoln and they failed miserably. A few were intercepted, but several went off course or exploded upon launch or in the air. Iran was not happy, but also realizes they don't have any other options to resupply themselves than to turn to China. The missiles were very recent acquisitions by Iran. China cannot explain it away by calling them dual use supplies and that they didn't know. The attack on the Lincoln exposed them.
Trump has been dismantling Xi's globalist expansion efforts one by one that China has built over the last decade of more.
Excellent post. I didn't know about the finance part, or I heard and forgot, so it's nice to see it explained clearly - more likely to remember in the future.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the US and Russia come to terms on trade and maintaining law and order in our corners of the globe.
I don't see that happening anytime soon as long as Xi is in the picture. Putin is not on equal footing with Xi since the Ukraine war started. Putin is the weaker partner in this relationship because Putin depends on China to keep them afloat. I recently heard that the Russian budget is hemorrhaging cash. Their sovereign wealth fund is being fast depleted just to fill the financial gaps and is soon to be gone - possibly in 6 months.
Moscow was recently put on an internet lockdown so that the Muscovites can't find out what is actually happening in the country with the Ukrainian hits on oil infrastructure and ports. Then there is the numbers of losses occuring on the front that are enormous. Sadly many Russian soldiers froze to death this winter because they simply were not outfitted properly. There is a lot of corruption in the Russian military. It has always been that way. Officers and commanders often sell the supplies meant for the troops. Russian soldiers have always been expendable to those in charge. I think its in their DNA. My mother's family is from Russia.
Putin I think is not sure how to extricate himself from the situation without losing his legitimacy among Russians. It is always difficult when negotiating a deal to end a conflict where it can be sold to the home crowd in such a way as to not cause the people to revolt when they finally find out what it has cost them. The Iranian regime is faced with the same problem - how to make capitulation sound like a win to remain in power.
I really do think that Xi convinced Putin to move forward with invading the Ukraine in the first place. Xi wanted to use the war to tie the US down somewhere other than the West Pacific. Xi has done the same thing with Iran - keep the US entrenched in the ME. So, China will continue to supply Iran with materials and weapons to prolong the conflict - otherwise the Iranian regime would have already collapsed.