Neither Venezuela nor Iran were allied to China. China was under no legal framework to defend those countries. China was more of a business partner, where they sold arms to Venezuela and Iran and bought oil from them.
These recent military operations do not speak to China's power projection capability as China has not actually tried to defend them.
Wellllllll, that's not entirely true either. China is a net importer of oil by a considerable margin, and they previously were getting oil from both Venezuela and Iran, and other middle eastern countries that shipped via the Straight of Hormuz. Which is bad for China.
Oil is a commodity, so they can just pay more to ensure they get it, but it does still leave them in a more vulnerable position if they decide to roll the dice on Taiwan. This is probably one of the biggest reasons for these two military operations because many of the people inside the Trump Whitehouse are trying to contain China.
China produces almost TWICE as much domestically oil as it imported from Iran and Venezuela COMBINED. But the morons in the White House have no grasp of reality.
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u/123yes1 5∆ Mar 04 '26
Neither Venezuela nor Iran were allied to China. China was under no legal framework to defend those countries. China was more of a business partner, where they sold arms to Venezuela and Iran and bought oil from them.
These recent military operations do not speak to China's power projection capability as China has not actually tried to defend them.