With his military strikes against the Iranian regime, “Donald Trump has not only reshuffled the deck, he’s laid the cards out for the players. And China now has a terrible hand.”
That is the assessment of bestselling author and investigative journalist Peter Schweizer, author of two books specifically about Chinese meddling in US affairs and most recently the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Invisible Coup. Schweizer has been reporting for years on China’s involvement all around the world and particularly with the now-decapitated Iranian regime.
China helped arm the mullahs with advanced missile technology and components, Schweizer told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on her program Tuesday. This allowed Iran to stockpile thousands of advanced missiles that are now threatening – and striking – moderate Arab nations in the Middle East.
Ingraham opened her show segment with the statement, “the Chinese government was industrializing Iran’s capacity to hold the Middle East at gunpoint.”
Schweizer agreed with that, and added that Trump’s strikes against Iran have weakened China’s strategic position by destroying Chinese-provided air defense systems and jeopardizing more than $100 billion in Chinese investments. Worse for the Chinese, by eliminating Iran and Venezuela as China’s sources of discounted oil, Trump’s actions will force China to buy its oil from global markets using US dollars.
“So, this is a disaster for China, on multiple stages,” Schweizer said. “And Donald Trump has shifted the discussion that he is going to have with President XI when they meet in China entirely.”
Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, and the strike against Iran will give him massive leverage over China, particularly regarding Taiwan, since 40% of Chinese oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which US forces will now effectively control, he added.
Ingraham also asked whether America is depleting key supplies of its munitions that might be needed to defend against a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan in the future.
“Well, you certainly want to reconstitute our industrial base and produce more missiles. But here’s the problem,” Schweizer said. “Forty percent of China’s oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s why when the Iranians were saying they were going to shut it, the Chinese said, ‘no, no, we want it to be open.’ So Trump now has massive leverage over China.”
