Jagannath Panda’s analysis China’s Free Ride in Hormuz was featured in the Guardian

March 27, 2026: Jagannath Panda, Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, published an analysis on “China’s Free Ride in Hormuz” in the Diplomat. This piece was featured in the Guardian’s opinion piece: “The Guardian view on China and Iran: the war poses bigger questions for Beijing than where to get its oil”.

“But it now has expanded economic and diplomatic interests to protect and a growing expatriate population – perhaps a million in the Middle East alone – who expect protection. When tensions grow, its limited security contribution becomes more conspicuous and its avoidance of taking sides becomes trickier. Its pride in brokering a Saudi-Iranian thaw in 2023 looks rather hollow. The limits of “strategic ambiguity” are showing.”