US needs an exit ramp for itself, not an 'economic D-Day' for Iran: China Daily editorial

Watching a superpower that cannot win a conflict pretend it can win an economic siege would be comic if it weren't so tragic.

That is what we witnessed this week, when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped forward to declare the "single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary" — in this case Iran — only to acknowledge that Washington was not actually naming the countries to be punished or imposing secondary sanctions yet. There would be a "cure period". The penalties would come later.

Washington wants to convince Tehran that tougher measures are coming while keeping its own options open. But the much-hyped "economic D-Day" looks more like a damp squib.

The United States' latest campaign targets almost 60 individuals, entities and vessels and expands the reach into digital assets, gold, technology, aviation and shipping. Failing to fully throttle Iran's oil exports, Washington is technically waging an open assault on the non-dollar financial order to preserve the US' dollar hegemony.

China — one of Iran's trading partners — has made its position clear. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said sanctions and pressure tactics do not resolve problems; they only escalate tensions and damage global economic growth and financial stability. China urges all parties to return to political settlement through dialogue and negotiation.

Washington cannot turn every trading partner into a US accomplice in the Middle East crisis. China will do what is necessary to protect its legitimate rights and interests.

The irony is that while Bessent was announcing an economic war, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was traveling to Tehran after speaking with US President Donald Trump. Pakistani sources said Washington had asked Islamabad to use its influence to bring Iran back to negotiations.

The world has seen this double act before. Washington has repeatedly made extravagant claims about the Strait of Hormuz, at one point declaring that the US blockade was "100 percent effective" and that it had "complete control", when evidently it didn't.

By dictating timelines for other countries to cut ties with Iran in the listed fields, Washington has all but admitted that domestic pressure has left it desperate to escape the mess that it created.

The whole world, particularly Iran, can clearly see that the US administration appears increasingly trapped in a crisis of its own making. Gasoline in the US has risen above $4 a gallon. Inflation and living costs remain painfully high. The US national debt has climbed beyond $40 trillion, while the US administration is intervening in the Treasury market to support demand for government bonds.

Against that backdrop, the Iran conflict offers an irresistible political stage. A US administration under domestic economic pressure before the midterm elections can always look stronger by threatening a foreign adversary and telling the rest of the world what to do. In politics you get far more mileage out of managing expectations than you ever will from keeping your word.

Iran has already endured decades of sanctions. It has built mechanisms to diversify its economic relationships. Tehran says it has prepared a two-year plan to withstand the latest US measures. Whether that plan succeeds is another question. But expecting new sanctions alone to produce a result that has not been achieved in nearly half a century is hardly a strategy.

The longer this war and economic siege continue, the more the costs spread — to global energy markets and ultimately to US households. The US administration does not need another "economic D-Day" for Iran. It needs an exit ramp for itself.

After its many military misadventures, the US should have learned by now that you cannot bomb a nation into submission, sanction it into surrender or bluff your way out of a quagmire created by yourself. At some point, even superpowers have to choose between the theater of strength and the hard work of diplomacy.

The last time the US administration played list-maker to the rest of the world, it was the great tariff fiasco — a spectacle later ruled unlawful and remembered for its lose-lose consequences. Yet here we are again, with Washington dusting off the same playbook, this time in the name of the Iran conflict. History is unlikely to be kind to this rerun.