China’s quiet harvest: As America fights, Asia turns to Beijing
External Publication
April 10, 2026
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More than a month into the US-Israeli war with Iran, the central question is no longer whether China can avoid the costs. It cannot. The more important question is whether others will emerge even less able to bear them.
China is not becoming the Gulf’s military stabiliser. It is emerging instead as the power best placed to cushion the downstream effects of instability for energy- and import-dependent Asian states — and to look steadier and more useful than the actor that helped trigger the crisis.
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