China’s New Silk Road Just Cut Out the Dollar
While Washington fiddles with sanctions and naval posturing, Iran and China just launched a freight railway that slices through Central Asia like a scalpel—straight from Xi’an to Tehran in half the time it takes by sea.
That’s 15 days, port to port, no US Navy in sight.
This isn’t just a railway—it’s a middle finger to the petrodollar empire.
Officials from Iran, China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey met in Tehran earlier this month to finalize tariff deals and operational standards. Translation? The new Silk Road is here, and Uncle Sam’s not invited.
The US-sanctioned economy of Iran now has a clear trade artery feeding straight into China’s industrial maw. Manufactured goods flow west. Oil flows east. And unlike the Strait of Hormuz or the Suez Canal, there’s no American warship parked along the tracks.
This move caps off a decade-long pivot.
Since 2018, when Khamenei declared Iran should look eastward, China has become Iran’s largest oil buyer and a lifeline for sanctioned tech and industrial goods. The 25-year, $400 billion economic pact signed in 2021 sealed the deal.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is now bleeding into Europe—and Iran’s dry ports are the gateway. The rail route is a physical rejection of dollar dominance, and a geopolitical brick through the window of US hegemony.
Meanwhile, in Iraq… Beijing Moves In
As if that weren’t enough, China just tightened its grip on Iraq’s energy lifeline. Geo-Jade Petroleum signed a massive new deal: 200,000 bpd refinery, two power plants, plus petrochemical and fertilizer factories.
Iraq calls it “a big leap.” What it really is? A Chinese land grab in the heart of OPEC territory.
Beijing already controls over a third of Iraq’s oil and gas reserves. Now it’s eyeing 7 million bpd capacity—and Washington? Still too busy chasing ESG fantasies and subsidizing solar panels made in the same factories that are powering this expansion.
The 2019 “Oil for Reconstruction” pact let China bankroll infrastructure in exchange for crude. And it’s working. Chinese firms are muscling out Western giants, building Iraq’s energy future while US companies drown in bureaucracy and climate fantasy mandates.
This Is What De-Dollarization Looks Like
Two sanctioned states. Two oil giants. Two major rail and energy corridors—now flowing east.
This isn’t theory anymore. The multipolar world is under construction, and it doesn’t run on Washington’s rules.
