Geoff Raby notes: “Both the great powers exercise economic coercion for a variety of political ends: to influence and shape the international behaviour of other states”.
However US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent has gone further, openly stating that he fomented mass unrest in Iran. Not content with that, he is now threatening Chinese oil refiners who buy Iranian crude oil and associated Chinese banks. In addition the US Navy is illegally boarding tankers in the Indian Ocean. These actions only worsen the Hormuz issue and back the Iranian position that the US negotiates in bad faith. The US blockade is a hostile act not consistent with a ceasefire. The same applies to the economic threat to China, our major trading partner, and so it is not in China or Australia’s interest. It is a blundering action which could widen the war.