As the United States enters day six of Operation Epic Fury, attention is shifting to how our military victories are affecting our most formidable foreign adversaries, chiefly China. As of Wednesday, the United States has established a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of the global oil supply passes each day.
This control not only prevents Iran and its terrorist proxies from using the strait as leverage but also provides the United States with a powerful strategic advantage over China, which relies on the passage for an estimated 40 to 50 percent of its oil imports.
Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, explained on Fox News that the United States now holds not only increased economic leverage over China but also a growing strategic advantage. He argued that Beijing is being forced to confront the possibility that its military advancements may not rival those of the United States, particularly as Chinese and Russian-supplied equipment used by Venezuela and Iran has proven no match for American forces.
🚨 WOW! China is now PANICKING over President Trump's overwhelming strikes against Iran and Venezuela victory
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 5, 2026
PETER SCHWEIZER: "China has lost TWO of its most important allies in the developing world!"
“China provided their most advanced air defense capabilities to Iran...we… pic.twitter.com/cTXTu3EWRK
"Look, assume that China wanted to move on Taiwan, right? There's a military response. But now we have a massive energy response, which is we simply don't allow any tankers to ship oil from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz," Schweizer explained. "We can do it. It might have been a little bit dicey had we not taken out the Iranians. That's roughly half of their oil. Forty to 50 percent of their oil is now suddenly not available to them. So those are enormous methodologies."
Schweizer further argued that not only does the United States now hold leverage over roughly half of China’s oil supply, but that Beijing is increasingly aware that its military equipment may not measure up to that of the United States.
And look at what happens in terms of military technology, Jesse. China provided their most advanced air defense capabilities to Iran. We completely destroyed them. They didn't shoot down one American or Israeli plane. This is reminiscent of 1982 when the Israelis flying F-15s went up against the Syrians flying MiGs and the Israelis beat them 81 aircraft to zero. What happened after that? They couldn't give the MiGs away.
So China now has the problem that their military technology is not recognized as being up to par to the United States. That's going to have huge implications with a whole host of other countries. So they lose a bunch of customers and they lose face. Now that the United States, if this mission is successful, now we have no idea how this is going to play out.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters then asked what position the United States now holds with respect to Venezuela and Iran, given their increased vulnerability to American control.
"Well, it means that a lot of countries in the developing world that might have been flirting with China don't want to flirt with them anymore because they realize that, A, China can sign all the quote-unquote strategic partnerships they want, but they're not going to do anything about it if their allies get in trouble," Schweizer argued. "I mean, all China's done is send some scolding messages. They haven't done a single thing to stand up for their allies. Second of all, they understand that this administration is the partner that they want to be in business with, not Beijing."