Chinese Vessels Traverse Strait Of Hormuz Despite Blockades

Chinese-owned oil tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since Monday’s blockade of the major shipping lane.

Several tankers have already crossed the Strait according to vesselfinder, including two Chinese-owned vessels, Rich Starry and Murlikishan. The tankers are exploiting a loophole within the blockades by visiting non-Iranian ports with the permission of the Iranian regime, the two conditions required to pass through both blockades.

“The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy. Keeping the area safe and stable and ensuring unimpeded passage serves the common interest of the international community,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a press conference on Monday. “The root cause of the disruption at the Strait of Hormuz is the military conflict. To solve the issue, the conflict must stop as soon as possible.”

“No ships made it past the U.S. blockade,” according to a X post that U.S. Central Command referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to when it was asked about the Chinese vessels crossing the strait. However, the post later concedes that “U.S. forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”

More than 10,000 U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Airmen along with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft are executing the mission to blockade ships entering and departing Iranian ports. During the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the U.S. blockade and 6 merchant vessels… pic.twitter.com/dpWAAknzQp

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 14, 2026

Both tankers visited ports in the United Arab Emirates, according to vesselfinder.com, before transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Rich Starry exited the strait headed toward the Indian Ocean while Murlikishan entered the Persian Gulf through the strait.

Rich Starry and Murlikishan are both chemical-oil product tankers, according to information available at vesselfinder. These vessels frequently visit China to unload their cargo, according to open source information found on Magicport.ai.

The U.S. blockade requires that all vessels not go to or from Iranian ports, while the Iranian blockade requires that vessels obtain approval from the Iranian regime before crossing the strait.

Rich Starry is owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd, which is both a debarred entity and a sanctioned entity, according to information obtained from opensanctions.org. Specifically, the company is subject to the Iran-focused sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under Executive Order 13949.

Although the vessels are Chinese-owned, they are operating under the flags of foreign nations. Rich Starry is currently sailing under the flag of Malawi, and Murlikishan is currently sailing under the flag of Madagascar, according to vesselfinder.com. Registering shipping vessels under the flags of other nations is not uncommon for the shipping industry.

The crossing of Rich Starry and Murlikishan shows that the blockades are not airtight, with a loophole that can bypass both blockades.

To bypass the United States blockade, it must not have a port of call in an Iranian port, according to a US CENTCOM press release. To bypass the Iranian blockade, vessels must pay a toll in Chinese Yuan and receive approval from the Iranian regime, according to reporting by Bloomberg.

China was reportedly preparing to send air defense systems to Iran, according to information that anonymous sources provided to CNN.