Obvious, but "charitable" reading of the Iran-oil-China nonsense is that *the US can now close the Strait of Hormuz for China* at will, having disabled the last non-aligned nation which had access to it. It's not about those discount 13%, it's about all Gulf exports.

of course, with the US itself being a major oil exporter and in no need of Gulf oil, the question becomes – how do the Arabs cope? Even replacing Russians for Europe/India isn't going to offset the loss of China for them. But if need be, Americans can ensure compliance with force