Strait of Hormuz transiting ships flash ‘China owner’ signals to evade Iran blockade

Ships near the Strait of Hormuz are broadcasting Chinese affiliations in an apparent bid to avoid attack, at a time when Iran’s new supreme leader vows to keep the strategic waterway closed.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’s MarineTraffic data platform.The broadcasts were a defensive measure, said Cui Shoujun, director of the Institute of International Development Studies at Renmin University’s School of International Studies.The commercial vessels – flying the flags of Panama, the Marshall Islands, Kuwait and Guinea – displayed messages such as “China owner and crew” and “China cargo”, MarineTraffic showed.“Foreign vessels borrowing Chinese identities primarily seek to leverage China’s ‘relative neutrality’ in geopolitics, effectively providing merchant ships with a layer of ‘diplomatic bulletproofing’,” Cui said.“The practice has evolved into a systematic risk-mitigation strategy amid the escalating Middle East conflict.”On Thursday, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – in his first public statement since taking office – said Tehran would continue to block the strait, through which about one-fifth of global crude and liquefied natural gas flows. Multiple ships have been attacked in the Gulf over the past few days, as the US-Israeli war with Iran spreads across the region.