Post #4472727

'If its biggest customers across Europe and Asia suddenly experienced a recession ... China could lose “half its export market and a bunch of its economy with it”. Providing an energy lifeline to the rest of the world might have been a necessary step ... This possibility, unlike the others, would explain China’s silence: Beijing likely wouldn’t want to loudly declare to the rest of the world that it has a vested economic interest in helping to cushion future oil shocks. '... China’s leverage over oil prices gives it the ability to inflict immense pain on American consumers, and really the entire world, at a moment’s notice. Even if China doesn’t choose to do so, the fact that it can might be enough to give the country even more sway over international affairs'. https://archive.md/ApLel