Policing Hormuz is not the answer: China says Trump's call to other nations is a ‘structured transfer of risk’

Strait of Hormuz disruption: China has called out the US for initiating the war on Iran and then asking for help from other nations to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. It said Trump’s attempted resolution of the Hormuz disruption, by asking other nations to send naval ships, is not the answer. 

Trump had asked US allies, and named China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK, to send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz. “Crowding a volatile waterway with warships from multiple nations doesn't create security. It creates flashpoints. If any single vessel were struck, the consequences could rapidly spiral beyond anyone's control. This is less international cooperation ‘to keep the Strait open and safe’ and more a carefully structured transfer of risk,” read an opinion piece of Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese government. 

A shortage of naval ships is not the issue here but an ongoing war, stated the piece.

It said Trump’s call to other nations deserves a harder look. “Is this really about ‘sharing responsibility’ – or is it about sharing the risk of a war that Washington started and can't finish?” it asked. 

The piece stated that considering what passes through the Strait of Hormuz every day, the damage of the waterway’s closure will not be limited to the US. “Shared stakes, shared burden - seems fair. But there is a fundamental problem with this framing: Who ignited the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz in the first place? Who is still bombing Iran?” it asked. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had earlier said that this is a war that should not have happened and one that does no one any good. The US-Israel attacked Iran without any authorisation from the UN, violating international law. “In other words, someone set the fire. Now they're asking the world to help put it out – and split the bill,” it said. 

West Asian issues have taught that military force can win battles but it can’t win trust, it stated. Every US-led military intervention, from Iraq to Libya, came with the promise of order and security but instead left a deeper disorder. The Hormuz crisis is not an isolated disorder, it said, but an “accumulated consequence of decades of policy choices”. 

Closing the strait is not Iran’s preferred choice but the last resort, said the piece. Iran’s own oil passes through the strait. 

“One thousand warships cannot achieve what one negotiating table can. The security of the Strait of Hormuz does not depend on how many navies patrol it. It depends on whether the guns fall silent,” it added.