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In a lesser reported part of the background, Chairman Xi Jinping summoned the Pakistani negotiators to Beijing prior to the terms of agreement with Trump. The summoning happened right after Trump said he was going to target the full force of the U.S. military against Iranian infrastructure.

Why does that matter to China? Belt and Road. Beijing has built a railway from China into Iran for the transport of goods and raw materials (including energy products) out of Iran (sanctions avoidance) in exchange for shipments of weapons. If President Trump targeted the railway infrastructure, in combination with the oil shipments being hampered, ¹China would be in a very bad place. Hence the summoning to get a ceasefire.

¹China in a bad place due to the middle east in crisis, means China becomes more dependent on Russia for oil, gas and ultimately fuel. Internally, Russia isn’t a big fan of their Chinese dependencies.

If FUBAR in Iran remained the statis, the two countries not in any crisis would be the USA and Russia, both with oil/gas and extra refining capacity. The countries/regions in biggest crisis would be China, Europe and Southeast Asia.

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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/04/09/susan-kokinda-on-trumps-gambit-civilizational-expansion-or-nihilistic-western-decline/