{"id":17645,"date":"2026-03-13T13:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/17645\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:06:06","slug":"strait-of-hormuz-transiting-ships-flash-china-owner-signals-to-evade-iran-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/17645\/","title":{"rendered":"Strait of Hormuz transiting ships flash \u2018China owner\u2019 signals to evade Iran blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ships near the Strait of Hormuz are broadcasting Chinese affiliations in an apparent bid to avoid attack, at a time when Iran\u2019s new supreme leader <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/world\/middle-east\/article\/3346408\/irans-mojtaba-khamenei-tells-gulf-nations-close-us-bases-war-rages?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vows to keep<\/a> the strategic waterway closed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The crews of at least 11 vessels sitting in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf had their transponders set to announce Chinese links on Friday afternoon, according to Kpler\u2019s MarineTraffic data platform.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The broadcasts were a defensive measure, said Cui Shoujun, director of the Institute of International Development Studies at Renmin University\u2019s School of International Studies.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The commercial vessels \u2013 flying the flags of Panama, the Marshall Islands, Kuwait and Guinea \u2013 displayed messages such as \u201cChina owner and crew\u201d and \u201cChina cargo\u201d, MarineTraffic showed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cForeign vessels borrowing Chinese identities primarily seek to leverage China\u2019s \u2018relative neutrality\u2019 in geopolitics, effectively providing merchant ships with a layer of \u2018diplomatic bulletproofing\u2019,\u201d Cui said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe practice has evolved into a systematic risk-mitigation strategy amid the escalating Middle East conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei \u2013 in his first public statement since taking office \u2013 said Tehran would continue to block the strait, through which about one-fifth of global crude and liquefied natural gas flows. Multiple ships <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/asia\/southeast-asia\/article\/3346242\/thai-navy-says-cargo-ship-attacked-near-strait-hormuz?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">have been attacked<\/a> in the Gulf over the past few days, as the US-Israeli war with Iran <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3345689\/how-far-could-war-iran-spread-beyond-middle-east?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">spreads across the region<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ships near the Strait of Hormuz are broadcasting Chinese affiliations in an apparent bid to avoid attack, at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[262,9107,9108,496,444,102,379,34,361,37,6457,35,6454,49,6456,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-17645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-chinese","10":"tag-cosco-shipping-technology","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-gulf-of-oman","13":"tag-hormuz","14":"tag-houthis","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iranian","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-kpler","19":"tag-kuwait","20":"tag-marshall-islands","21":"tag-middle-east","22":"tag-panama","23":"tag-persian-gulf"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116222019756074434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}