Donald Trump’s leading military advisor has received a shocking confidential report indicating that China is supplying arms to the United States’ Middle Eastern allies, as U.S. military stockpiles dwindle.
This analysis, prepared by the Joint Staff’s intelligence division for General Dan Caine, has triggered significant concern within the Pentagon. It comes at a crucial time as Trump is set to meet with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday.
With the U.S. rapidly depleting its arsenal to shield Gulf allies from Iranian attacks, China has seized the opportunity to step in and provide weapons to the same allies that Washington is striving to defend.
The intelligence report, which was highlighted by the Washington Post, did not specify which Gulf nations received Chinese arms. However, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have long been prominent buyers of Chinese military equipment.
In addition to armaments, China has provided energy resources to nations affected by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This includes countries like Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines, all of which have defense treaties with the U.S.
The summit between Trump and Xi was initially delayed in March due to the ongoing conflict with Iran. Trump now arrives in Beijing facing challenges both domestically and internationally as the conflict continues to wreak havoc on the global economy.
The President remains adamant that Iran cannot get its hands on a nuclear bomb, but is increasingly eager to end the war which has sent oil prices skyrocketing ahead of crucial midterm elections in November.
China has seized on the 39-day conflict to expand its military, economic and diplomatic influence around the world, the intelligence report warns.
US President Donald Trump (C) is escorted by China’s Vice President Han Zheng (R) upon his arrival at Beijing Capital Airport in Beijing on May 13
Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15, 2025 in Tehran, Iran
Beijing has cast itself as the responsible global power, branding the US strikes on Iran ‘illegal,’ calling for restraint, and offering itself as a stabilizing alternative to Trump.
‘The war in Iran is massively improving China’s geopolitical position,’ Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the Washington Post.
Trump has claimed that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is far more damaging to China than to the US, with roughly 45 percent of Beijing’s crude oil imports passing through the narrow waterway.
But the intelligence warns that China has been able to weather the storm because it has vast oil reserves and has been building up its sources of renewable energy.
‘China is the second-most-insulated country in the world to the energy crisis, after only the US,’ Ryan Hass, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, told the Post.
China has been able to supply jet fuel and other energy commodities to other nations, even as Iran’s blockade chokes off global flows.
‘This is not altruism,’ Hass added. ‘It is Beijing seizing on an opportunity to drive wedges between America and its traditional partners.’
The US has raced through its missile stockpiles in the asymmetric fight against Iran’s vast fleet of drones, firing million-dollar interceptors at cheap one-way attack aircraft.
China’s President Xi Jinping looks on during a signing ceremony together with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 12
US forces have burned through nearly half their entire Patriot interceptor stockpile, more than half their THAAD ballistic missile defenses and over 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the 39-day war, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis. Replacing them will take three to five years.
The drain has sparked alarm in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, where officials are questioning whether the US can be relied upon to defend them against China.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said: ‘Assertions claiming the global balance of power have shifted towards any nation other than the United States of America are fundamentally false.’
He added that the US ‘maintains a deep, resilient arsenal and the industrial capacity required to defend our nation, protect our interests, and deter any adversary.’
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the US ‘decimated the Iranian regime’s military capabilities in 38 short days and is now strangling what’s left of their economy with one of the most successful naval blockades in history.’
Trump meets Xi in Beijing on Thursday, the first face-to-face between the two leaders since the Iran war erupted on February 28.
The President is expected to press Xi to lean on Tehran to accept a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Xi is widely expected to push for tariff relief and access to American-designed AI chips.
The summit was originally slated for March but was postponed when the war broke out.
