Mashadipati: Xi’s sitting pretty

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Nearly one month into US President Donald Trump's war on Iran, there's one person whose silence stands out: Xi Jinping.

In contrast to most other Group of 20 leaders, China's commander-in-chief hasn't commented on the conflict, keeping quiet as panic elsewhere sets in. South Korea has set up an emergency economic task force, the Philippines warned about grounding planes and Japan is beginning its largest oil release from emergency stockpiles to date.

In Beijing, it's largely business as normal.

Xi Jinping, China's president, attends the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, China, on Thursday, March 5, 2026. China set its most modest growth target since 1991, in a tacit acknowledgment that the model powering the country's rapid rise for the past four decades is showing strains. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg — Xi at the opening session of the National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5.

That's because while the US doubles down on fossil fuels, drilling more crude than ever last year and moving to shut down offshore windfarms, Xi's been ramping up renewables. Around half of new car sales are now electric in the world's No. 2 economy, keeping down pressure from pump prices. And China still has coal in its back pocket.

In the short term, the war is working out well for Xi: US sanctions China has long railed against as "hegemonic" are coming off Russian and even Iranian oil, American military power has been humbled by drones and US allies have snubbed Trump's call for help.

Look further out, and things get trickier.

Rising oil prices will hurt the factories underpinning China's lopsided economy. Chinese firms have a trail of investment snaking across the Middle East that Beijing doesn't want to see blown up, literally.

With rumblings of US-Iran talks in Pakistan, Chinese diplomats are hitting the phones, telling Iran to "seize every opportunity for peace" — showing they're keen for an end to the volatility.

For now, though, Xi is sitting pretty. And with his calendar clear of a Trump summit next month, he's got time to play with.

As the Chinese proverb says: Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake. — Jenni Marsh

Global Must Reads

The US has drafted a 15-point plan intended to help end the war with Iran, sources say, highlighting the intensifying urgency within the Trump administration to resolve the conflict as the economic toll mounts. Even as Trump signaled that Tehran had offered a "present" linked to energy as a show of good faith in negotiations he claims are ongoing, one source said the US has ordered about 2,000 soldiers to deploy to the Middle East.

The Philippines declared a national energy emergency as the Middle East conflict threatens the country's fuel supplies, while South Korea said it was stepping up contingency planning for a worst-case scenario. Thailand warned it risked seeing 3 million fewer foreign tourists this year, costing its economy about 150 billion baht ($4.6 billion) if the war drags on for six months and threatens global travel.

India is facing mounting pressure as the current leader of the BRICS group to steer the bloc toward taking a firmer stand on the Iran conflict, putting New Delhi's diplomacy to the test. Almost a month in, BRICS has failed to take a position on the war, with multiple members on different sides of the conflict making consensus difficult.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's party won a closely contested election by pledging stability in global turmoil, setting the stage for difficult coalition talks to secure a third term in power. Her Social Democrats emerged as the biggest party after yesterday's parliamentary vote overshadowed by Trump's threats over Greenland but scored its worst result in more than a century, leaving Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of the centrist Moderates as the potential kingmaker.

Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, speaks at their party's election night event at the Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Frederiksen's party won a closely contested election by pledging stability in global turmoil, setting the stage for difficult coalition talks to secure a third term in power. Photographer: Nichlas Pollier/Bloomberg — Mette Frederiksen at an election night event in Copenhagen.

Democrat Emily Gregory is poised to represent Trump and his Mar-a-Lago residence in the Florida state House of Representatives after Republicans unexpectedly lost a special election. Republicans hold a wide majority in Florida, so the vote will have little effect on state politics, but it represents a symbolic win for Democrats and a warning sign for the GOP ahead of the November congressional midterms.

Hong Kong police reportedly arrested bookstore owner Pong Yat-ming and three employees on suspicion of selling publications deemed to have "seditious intention," including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

An active officer of Japan's Self-Defense Forces was arrested yesterday after breaching the grounds of China's embassy in Tokyo, another episode likely to keep ties between Japan and China strained.

Right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro edged ahead of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the first time in a new poll of voting intention for October's election, although his 1 percentage-point lead was within the margin of error.

Italian premier Giorgia Meloni called on Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè to resign as she attempts to clean house after defeat in a key referendum.

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Chart of the Day

Poor countries may lose 10 times more people to deaths from high temperatures than rich ones, a Climate Impact Lab analysis shows. The report projects that by 2050, vulnerable countries will see an increase in heat-related fatalities equivalent to current mortality from common diseases, and 16 of the 20 countries facing the most new deaths are lower income.

And Finally

NASA plans to invest $20 billion over the next seven years to develop a base on the moon, part of an effort to enable human habitation over the longer term. The agency also said it would develop an entirely new spacecraft to reach Mars. Trump signed an executive order in December calling on the US to land astronauts back on the lunar surface by 2028 and begin building a permanent outpost by 2030 under NASA's Artemis program. "America will never again give up the moon," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.

NASA's Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion at the spacecraft NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Photographer: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images — The Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Xi’s sitting pretty

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And Finally

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