Luke du Pulford, executive director of the Intra-Parliamentary Alliance on China, spoke about President Trump’s trip to China this week and how China “stands to gain by the United States’ loss” in Iran, as “the U.S. is depleting its military resources.”
As seen below, du Pulford added: “Beijing has little incentive to help stop the conflict in Iran. They are supporting the regime and benefiting from another destabilising, resource-sapping conflict far away, which increases global dependence on China.”
Beijing has little incentive to help stop the conflict in Iran. They are supporting the regime and benefiting from another destabilising, resource-sapping conflict far away, which increases global dependence on China.
Sky News this am
pic.twitter.com/88EnPvqs0O
— Luke de Pulford (@lukedepulford) May 11, 2026
Max Meizlish, a former sanctions enforcement officer in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), responded to du Pulford: “Perhaps China doesn’t have much incentive to stop the conflict now. But that’s, in my view, because the U.S. hasn’t done what it could to compel change from Beijing. China is vulnerable to additional U.S. pressure.”
[NOTE: China is by far the world’s largest importer of Iranian oil.]
China is incredibly vulnerable to U.S. economic statecraft. Here’s how President Trump can press that advantage. https://t.co/94Yl8YY00A
— Max Meizlish (@maxmeizlish) May 7, 2026
Meizlish suggested that the Trump administration “should threaten to cut off one or more small to midsize Chinese banks from access to U.S. correspondent banking.”
He pointed to a May 6 Bloomberg article titled, ‘China Asks Banks to Pause New Loans to U.S.-Sanctioned Refiner,’ which reported: “China’s financial regulator advised its largest lenders to temporarily suspend new loans to five private refineries recently sanctioned by the US over their ties to Iranian oil.”
[NOTE: Meizlish is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank in Washington, D.C. which has been described as “a pro-Israel, pro-Ukraine, anti-Iran lobby group.”]
The Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin also replied: “Of course Luke is right. The Iran war is a gift to Xi Jinping. Why would he stop the U.S. from weakening itself and damaging its relations with most of the world in the process?”