Valuetainment - April 18, 2026


“China Is Afraid Of America” - Hormuz Blockade SHOWDOWN Sends China Ships Scrambling

Topics
Chinese oil tanker retreats from Hormuz economic warfare
Hosted by
Patrick Bet-David
Mentioned
Adam Hormuz Trump Zheon Run Joe Biden Malawi Asteri Vinny
“Strait Of Iran Is FULLY OPEN” - Trump DECLARES Iran War Victory As Hormuz Reopens “Homophobic At 6-Weeks-Old？” - Gay Man Goes VIRAL As Adopted Baby Cries For Mother

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

183.28

Word count

1,719

Sentence count

117

Harmful content

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping lane between the Strait of Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Iran has blockaded the Strait for over a week and a half, and China, the world's second-largest importer of Iranian oil, has been caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. naval blockade.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Tom, with things going on right now with Iran and the vessels trying to go through of Strait of Hormuz,
00:00:07.700 one of the ships was going through, and by the way, this China one, if we have that, Rob, for me to read it,
00:00:12.520 Chinese oil tanker retreats from the Strait of Hormuz, shows how Trump's blockade is working.
00:00:18.620 Okay, Chinese oil tanker retreat from the Strait of Hormuz, shows how the blockade is working.
00:00:23.760 So this is kind of interesting.
00:00:25.000 So China's got great relationships with Iran. 0.79
00:00:27.920 You know, they should be able to go through. 0.98
00:00:29.340 But wait a minute. They're now not. What happened there?
00:00:33.320 A sanctioned Chinese oil tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz, then was forced to double back and return to Iran after President Trump blockaded the vital shipping lane.
00:00:41.760 According to ship tracking data, a boarded voyage of the rich Stary, a Malawi flag Chinese owned tanker that was blacklisted by the U.S. in 2023,
00:00:51.940 shows how the U.S. Navy successfully blocked the flow of ships carrying Iranian oil.
00:00:57.060 Since the war began, most vessels have had traveled out of the Strait of Hormuz, have been loaded with Iranian exports.
00:01:03.020 Given the cash-strapped regime vital funds, so far the U.S. blockade on the eastern side of the Strait of the Gulf of Oman
00:01:09.320 has stopped at least five ships from heading out into the oceans.
00:01:13.640 According to the trade analysis from Kepler, Iran has stifled nearly all traffic through Hormuz,
00:01:21.180 which previously carried 20% of the world's oil by threatening to attack tankers if they don't pay the ransom.
00:01:27.040 Iran, the rich Asteri, which was previously accused of helping Tehran skirt oil sanctions,
00:01:32.380 has massed its location in the Persian Gulf for more than 10 days before attempting to leave the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
00:01:38.780 The tanker owned by Shanghai's Zheon Run shipping company was loaded with 250,000 barrels of methanol,
00:01:44.320 initially appeared to make it through the blockade,
00:01:47.280 but updated tracking data revealed the ship stopped in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday.
00:01:51.480 Tom, what does this U-turn mean about the power U.S. has that even China is now listening?
00:01:55.660 Well, it means that it is not – to say that we are controlling the strait right now is absolutely true.
00:02:02.780 And you also notice, and Rob, if you could put that map back up, we showed the map the other day, the one you just had, just right there, right there, right there.
00:02:10.860 You see how they're going on the northern route, Pat?
00:02:13.900 Remember we looked over Oman?
00:02:15.480 The two shipping routes went right around Oman that is on the south side.
00:02:20.220 But there's mines there, and Iran says, I don't know where the mines are.
00:02:23.720 I don't remember where I put them.
00:02:25.160 Okay, and now they've got to run this at the top.
00:02:27.560 So we've like, okay, you're not going through.
00:02:29.920 So number one, Trump had a conversation with Xi that got leaked,
00:02:34.580 and reliable sources are indicating that one of the things he told Xi,
00:02:38.240 stop providing military support.
00:02:41.220 They were sending him jet fuel or rocket fuel, excuse me.
00:02:44.300 They were sending him rocket fuel,
00:02:45.500 and apparently they gave them satellite images of the U.S. bases
00:02:49.480 at other places in UAE and Oman,
00:02:51.940 where they had actually launched those rockets that hit the tankers, that hit U.S. bases there.
00:02:59.600 So China was giving them basically intel, targeting intel.
00:03:04.960 So there's a lot going on with China here, and the rich starry is a smuggling ship.
00:03:10.780 When we've had blockades, we've had economic sanction,
00:03:13.500 that thing has been loading up with oil and sneaking back and forth through going to China and back.
00:03:18.580 And as far goes, 2023, they identified that that ship is basically a Chinese government operation getting them oil back and forth.
00:03:28.260 So what's going on here?
00:03:29.860 The blockade is working.
00:03:31.660 The U.S. military is there.
00:03:33.260 And even China's ship said, yeah, I'm going to hang a U-turn here.
00:03:36.340 I'm not going to screw with this.
00:03:37.000 While that's going on, they did say that China slammed U.S. military blockade of Strait of Hormuz as a dangerous and irresponsible move.
00:03:45.060 Rob, I think you've got a clip on this one if you want to go through it.
00:03:47.540 I think dangerous and irresponsible would be if they kept sailing. 0.84
00:03:50.700 Well, but what this officially, this move here officially showed that China is more afraid of America than Iran, and they're now listening. 0.78
00:03:59.120 This is a very, very important situation here. Go ahead, Rob. Play the clip.
00:04:04.680 Regarding the second question, I have already stated China's position.
00:04:08.960 As for the third question you raised, China has always maintained a prudent and responsible approach to military exports.
00:04:16.000 we exercise strict control based on our export laws and international obligations we oppose
00:04:23.280 groundless smears or malicious associations did he just say anything what did he just say rob i
00:04:32.100 don't even know i don't trust him because he has an english accent yeah he's the foreign
00:04:35.040 china but what did he really say what was his message i'm not sure what did he say rob we've
00:04:40.120 Being careful with military exports.
00:04:42.160 Well, why are you sending rocket fuel?
00:04:44.520 Yeah.
00:04:45.700 To the guy that needs rockets.
00:04:48.860 Adam.
00:04:49.760 Okay, check it.
00:04:51.000 Here's what's going on.
00:04:52.940 Trump launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
00:04:58.260 Do you know the new term they're using right now?
00:05:00.600 Operation Economic Fury.
00:05:02.780 Have you heard this yet?
00:05:03.580 Yes.
00:05:04.360 Economic Fury. 0.98
00:05:05.580 So when you hear Economic Fury, you're thinking, okay, that's next level with Iran. 0.96
00:05:09.500 Nope.
00:05:10.120 pause it's all about China what I want to do is reframe the conversation Venezuela what's
00:05:17.180 happening in Cuba right now Iran Syria Lebanon Russia it's all China what do I mean it's all
00:05:25.680 China because of the end game is China do you think when we finish winning this war against 0.98
00:05:30.720 Iran which we will as we militarily defeat them strategically defeat them economically defeat them 0.96
00:05:37.920 trump's going to say who's next we know who's next we're about to have midterm soon the second half 0.99
00:05:44.160 of this administration is going to be all about china and what we're doing is having economic
00:05:49.960 warfare versus china now how do you how do you pose economic warfare well it's very clear like
00:05:56.940 tom said you're choking off oil from the strait of hormuz so one other thing either trump one of 0.99
00:06:04.740 two things you tell me what you think it is either trump is a complete buffoon madman running around 1.00
00:06:11.260 crazy doesn't know what he's doing completely controlled by israel doesn't know what he's doing 0.98
00:06:16.180 or everything he's doing is strategic well thought out calculated and a cold-blooded economic plan
00:06:24.960 i happen to think he's on number two the former sorry the latter so what's happening oil warfare
00:06:33.340 U.S. hegemony, stability through strength, drill, baby drill,
00:06:37.580 making sure the petrodollar still is basically done in U.S. dollars,
00:06:42.200 everything he's doing with tariffs, and last but not least, BRICS,
00:06:46.520 it's all about economic fury versus China.
00:06:50.480 And I'm all for everything for America.
00:06:53.660 I've been seeing people online that are literally cheering against us,
00:06:57.360 and you talked about the strategic part.
00:06:58.600 Are they Americans?
00:06:59.940 Americans that are anti- ... Of course!
00:07:01.420 So can I pause for a second?
00:07:03.100 You're saying people online.
00:07:05.140 People in America want us to lose.
00:07:07.800 That are rooting what?
00:07:09.440 Against America.
00:07:10.540 Against America.
00:07:12.240 Okay, so can I get to the point?
00:07:13.460 No, my point is, let's not just gloss over that.
00:07:16.500 Imagine you're in America rooting against America.
00:07:18.880 Adam, there's people that burn the flag and hate America.
00:07:20.460 We see them all the time.
00:07:21.520 They hate Trump.
00:07:22.820 Yeah, and Adam, but yeah, let me get to my point.
00:07:25.680 I'm getting you, baby.
00:07:26.300 My point is there's those people, and you're talking about,
00:07:28.960 and by the way, I'm an American.
00:07:30.980 Regardless of whatever's going, I have to support the president.
00:07:33.620 Even though Joe Biden made fun of him because he was old, 1.00
00:07:35.720 I still don't want him to make stupid decisions because it affects us 1.00
00:07:39.080 and children and everything like that. 1.00
00:07:40.880 And I get what you're saying.
00:07:42.280 The Strait of Hormuz, economic, what's the other stuff that you said?
00:07:45.260 The strategic and all that.
00:07:46.120 But you know what?
00:07:47.700 It's almost as if everybody forgot.
00:07:49.600 The Iranian people.
00:07:51.420 This whole thing, I remember, was for them.
00:07:54.440 I got your back. 1.00
00:07:55.540 Don't you hang those boys. 1.00
00:07:57.100 I got your back. 1.00
00:07:57.600 I got your back.
00:07:58.120 Let me finish, Adam.
00:07:59.280 that was one component it wasn't the entire thing hold on a second this is me as vincent just yeah
00:08:04.600 an american sitting around it was for the people but now we're they're negotiating with the same
00:08:10.560 people that were killing the people in the street so are they going to change the leadership because
00:08:16.440 i haven't heard a peep from the people and that's what i my heart goes out for them because they did
00:08:21.280 their part they revolted they were in the street they lost all their lives well they're getting
00:08:25.240 hanged today my point is i love the economic victory but if the people are still in charge
00:08:31.940 the terrorists are still in charge how is that ever going to help them pat we have to go in there
00:08:36.360 and the goal was the regime change topple whatever and i just feel for them yeah i feel like their
00:08:41.740 voices are lost 100 i'm with you there i will i will tell you the one part there is no winning
00:08:46.780 with trump so and and and the part that i noticed with his critics if he goes in they'll say oh he's
00:08:54.100 putting boots on the ground. If he doesn't go in, he says, oh, look, he didn't take care of the
00:08:58.780 Iranian people he said is going to come out, help out. If he chickened out. Yeah. If he doesn't do
00:09:04.200 the deal in a market, you know, oil prices go up. Oh, look what he's doing. He doesn't know how to
00:09:11.320 take care of the economy. If boom, oil prices go to 83. Did you notice all he cares about his
00:09:16.220 economy? Vinny, there is no winning for this guy. OK, he has to make a choice of what it is to lead
00:09:21.680 and go out there and make it happen.