Xi Calls For Hormuz to Reopen as China Balances Its Gulf Interests
The comments on the Strait of Hormuz by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reflect Beijing’s complex relations with Iran and other Persian Gulf nations.
This week, China’s top leader Xi Jinping called for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen. This was the first time he had made such a statement since Iran closed the important waterway for good last month in response to attacks on its territory by the United States and Israel. Mr. Xi made the comments in a call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Monday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
“The Strait of Hormuz should remain open to normal navigation, which is in the common interest of regional countries and the international community,” Mr. Xi told Prince Mohammed, according to Xinhua.
Mr. Xi’s comments reflect his difficult balancing act. Despite the fact that Iran is Beijing’s closest strategic partner in the Middle East, China has economic ties to Gulf states that have been the targets of Iranian strikes, which China has not condemned. “This is a symbolic step that reflects the Kingdom’s importance in Beijing’s eyes as the leading Gulf state and partly offsets China’s lack of condemnation or meaningful support for Riyadh,” which has faced missile and drone attacks from Iran, said Tuvia Gering, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
The message was also aimed at Iran, according to University of Hong Kong expert Brian Wong Yue-Shun. “Beijing is definitely signaling subtly, yet importantly, to the hawks within Tehran that further unbridled escalation will not be tolerated,” he said.
Mr. Xi’s call with Prince Mohammed follows a meeting in Beijing last week with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, in which Mr. The world would revert to the “law of the jungle,” Xi warned. He did not directly mention the Strait of Hormuz in that meeting, as he did in his call with Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader.
In his conversation with Prince Mohammed, Mr. Xi said China supported regional states in building “a shared home of good neighborliness” so that they could take “their future and destiny into their own hands,” according to Xinhua.
Manoj Kewalramani, the head of Indo-Pacific studies at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore, India, said that Mr. Xi’s message was in line with earlier Chinese requests for deescalation from all parties. He stated, “Essentially, Beijing wants the United States to lift its blockade and for Iran to also allow ships to pass through.” Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have called for China to play a bigger role as a mediator in the crisis. Beijing assisted the two sides in reestablishing diplomatic relations nearly three years ago. However, it’s not clear if Mr. Xi is willing to deepen China’s involvement and risk getting entangled in a crisis it did not create.
Beijing’s primary concerns over the war are economic, analysts say. The Strait of Hormuz is where China gets up to 40% of its oil. The primary economic engine of China’s economy, trade, could be put at risk if the strategic waterway is closed for an extended period of time, leading to a global recession.
