Six months into a U.S. military campaign against Iran that shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil market has been spared its worst-feared reckoning — not by diplomacy or Western coordination, but by a decade of quiet Chinese preparation. Beijing's decision to draw from its 1.4-billion-barrel strategic reserve, rather than compete for scarce supplies, has kept Brent crude from breaching the catastrophic thresholds analysts once warned were inevitable. It is a strange irony of this moment: a geopolitical rival's long-term self-interest has become the world economy's most effective shock