The $6 Diesel Lie: How US Foreign Policy is Subsidizing China’s Rise

You’ve probably noticed the price of diesel hitting record highs. You probably felt that sickening punch in the gut when you realized it costs twice as much to fill your tank, or when you saw the surcharge on your delivered goods. We are told this is the inevitable cost of defending freedom against Middle Eastern aggression.

It’s a lie.

The record $6 diesel price isn’t a market failure. It is the direct, foreseeable consequence of a fragmented global energy supply chain where our own foreign policy is working overtime to bankrupt the domestic working class.

You aren’t paying for freedom at the pump; you’re paying for the catastrophic mismanagement of a global empire.

Here is the structural reality the geopolitical elites in Washington refuse to acknowledge: energy is a global market. When the US attempts to project power through sanctions and foreign interventions—whether we’re poking at Iran or disrupting pipeline flows—we aren’t just punishing our adversaries. We are throwing a wrench into the global supply chain. And because the structural reality of global energy means supply shocks immediately boomerang, we are inflicting maximum economic pain on ourselves.

But the real twist isn’t just that we are hurting ourselves. It’s who we are helping.

While the US and our European allies are bleeding out on $6 diesel, China is quietly sweeping up the benefits. The Chinese economy has real weaknesses, make no mistake. A competent US leader could have worked with global allies to exploit them. Instead, our foreign policy—intended to contain adversaries—is functionally acting as a massive subsidy for Chinese industrial competitiveness.

Every sanction we drop on the Middle East functions as a direct industrial subsidy for Beijing.

While American consumers pay record prices for basic necessities, Chinese manufacturing gets to operate on cheap, unimpeded energy flows that we have deliberately disrupted for ourselves. We are quite literally burning down our own factories—and our allies’ factories—to keep our rivals warm.

Look at Europe. The whole continent is suffering because of these geopolitical games. European industry is being hollowed out, driven into the ground by energy prices that are directly tied to our saber-rattling and the resulting Middle Eastern supply shocks. The advances in Yemen, the bombings of pipelines, the constant threat to vital shipping straits—these aren’t just distant headlines. They are the reason your transportation costs are skyrocketing.

The people making these decisions don’t feel the sting. They don’t drive trucks, they don’t run small logistics companies, and they certainly don’t worry about the cost of groceries. They play chess with the global map, and every time they move a piece, the domestic working class pays the toll.

We are subsidizing our own geopolitical decline, and we’re being charged $6 a gallon for the privilege.

Neutrality is death in the face of this reality. We have to acknowledge that our current trajectory is not sustainable. A foreign policy that projects power by impoverishing its own citizens and subsidizing its greatest rival isn’t a strategy. It’s a suicide pact.

The next time you see that $6 on the pump, don’t just get mad at the oil companies. Get mad at the architects of a foreign policy that has made your wallet the collateral damage of their global chess game.