China stockpiled oil, and now it could dominate the energy landscape

Rebecca F. Elliott and Keith BradsherNew York Times·17 Sep, 2026 10:20 PM8 mins to readAn oil refinery in Jiujiang, China. The Iran conflict has made clear that China, which has long been highly vulnerable to oil supply shocks, has managed to transform that weakness into a surprising source of geopolitical power. Photo / Keith Bradsher, The New York TimesThe war with Iran revealed just how much influence the world’s biggest oil importer has over prices and other countries’ supplies of jet fuel, petrol and diesel.One of the most important lessons from the war with Iran is one that few saw coming. The conflict has made clear that