# Japan's Request for China to Open the Yangtze River: Transporting Oil Overland to Tokyo Bay—How Did They Come Up With This Idea?

Recently, tensions in the Persian Gulf have escalated. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, and some Japanese netizens have started brainstorming wildly, calling on the United Nations to pressure China to open the Yangtze River shipping lanes. Their idea is to create a "land-based oil superhighway"—laying pipelines from the Middle East to China, then shipping the oil down the Yangtze River and back to Tokyo Bay by vessel.

Data shows that over 90% of Japan's crude oil depends on the Middle East, and this lifeline must pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Currently, tensions in the Persian Gulf are heating up. If Iran actually moves to blockade the strait, or large-scale conflict erupts causing navigation to be disrupted, Japanese oil tankers would be stranded at sea. For Japan, this isn't just about rising oil prices—it's an existential crisis that could bring the entire national machinery to a standstill.

So when the nightmare of "the Strait of Hormuz possibly being closed" hangs over their heads, the panic and anxiety among the Japanese public—willing to try anything to survive—has exploded. The logic chain they imagined is simple: if sea routes are blocked, take land routes; since China is closer to the Middle East (relative to maritime detours), why not use Chinese territory?

But this "Yangtze River oil transport plan," if you simply unfold a map and take one look, proves to be almost geographically and engineeringly impossible. The proposal suggests "laying pipelines between China and the Persian Gulf overland first." Look at the map: the Persian Gulf is in West Asia, China is in East Asia. Between them lie the Iranian Plateau, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, or alternatively routing through Central Asian countries.

China currently does have pipelines importing oil from Central Asia and Russia, and there's the China-Myanmar pipeline. But building a pipeline several thousand kilometers long directly from the Persian Gulf coast, cutting through war-ravaged Afghanistan or Pakistan into western China, then spanning across China's entire interior to connect to the Yangtze River system?

Frankly, anxiety tends to get magnified, while professional knowledge of geography, engineering, and law is often overlooked. It appears Japan really is getting desperate now, increasingly willing to try anything to solve this problem.