Good Crisis for China?

• China, a major importer of Mideast crude, has high stakes in the region’s stability, having also invested in its renewables sector and made it an important part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

• About half of China’s crude imports, or up to 5.4 million barrels per day, would be impacted if the Strait of Hormuz were shut.

• China still lacks the diplomatic heft to be a peacemaker in the Middle East, but it holds cards that may help it benefit from the crisis.

The Israel-Iran conflict and the US-brokered ceasefire that ended it — at least for the time being — have done little to enhance China’s diplomatic clout, with Beijing unwilling, or unable, to weigh in on the conflict and its resolution. But it may still derive some benefits from the crisis, which has highlighted the costs of depending on unreliable Mideast oil and gas, making renewable power and electric vehicles (EVs) that China has bet heavily on an attractive alternative. And there may be some indirect upside, too, with all eyes on the Middle East and very few on China’s actions in East Asia, which it considers its backyard.