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Middle East
OpinionLetters

Letters | Iran war has underlined benefits of China’s ‘energy realism’ approach

Readers discuss the energy implications of the most recent conflict in the Middle East, and the strategic adaptations taking place

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A Chinese tanker sits anchored in Muscat, Oman, as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, amid the US-Israeli conflict on March 7. Photo: Reuters
Letters
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With the Strait of Hormuz – the jugular vein of global energy – effectively severed by geopolitical conflict, the world has seen Brent crude pierce the US$100 mark. This is more than a supply disruption; it signals the end of the petroleum era. The tremors felt across global markets underscore a truth that Beijing has quietly operationalised for a decade: energy transition is not merely a climate pledge, it is survival.
The global order is shifting from a “petroleum paradigm” to an “electricity paradigm”. China’s resilience is the result of a deliberate architecture of “power sovereignty”. In 2025, clean energy contributed 11.4 per cent to China’s gross domestic product.
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This green expansion serves as a strategic firewall, designed to decouple industrial growth from the volatile shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf.

Yet, the “green China” narrative glosses over its most pragmatic pillar: coal. China has quietly leveraged this fuel as a strategic anchor, proving that geopolitical realism often trumps ideological purity.

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Despite reaching a record 1,840 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity in 2025, coal remains the bedrock of the grid in China. With vast domestic reserves in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and beyond, coal continues to anchor the power system when wind and solar output fluctuates – increasingly important as electrification and artificial intelligence-driven data-centre demand accelerate.

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