The China-Iran rail corridor has been put into operation. The first freight train arrived in Iran in 15 days, compared to 40 days by sea. This gives China the ability to bypass US naval blockades

I'm going to put my money on America naming this communistic terrorism and drone striking it (this will be an "accident" if the general public condemns this action).

It gives them the ability to bypass the blockade until the US bombs it either from the air pretty openly or using one of their various "moderate rebel" groups with access to suspiciously advanced weaponry and explosives and maybe submarines for some reason.

It's good China is doing this but it's on shaky ground as long as the US has the ability to coup, seed terrorists, etc as they plead in areas with governments that are at least a lot weaker than Russia in abilities of self-defense and security against an adversary like NATO.

They already have a vague interest in color revolution-ing or seeding "moderate rebel" maidan or ISIS types in these nations due to their historical affinity with the USSR and present-day proximity to and importance to Russia but cutting off the belt and road is going to be very high priority. Taking out just Turkmenistan here for instance completely blunts this and Uzbekistan while possibly to bypass by a long routing around via Kazakhstan is also pretty important.

Make no mistake if the US escalates to the point of a naval blockade of China from the first/second/third island chains they're not going to flinch at using a proxy to blow up a rail bridge or do damage in ways that takes weeks to repair. For regular trade it's a good thing and a poke in the eye to the US but if stuff hits the fan their most reliable routes overland are going to be via Russia which is already dealing with CIA proxies via Ukraine and has the experience and capabilities to counter them pretty effectively compared to most places. Ideally they put into place more alternate rail lines as well so it takes more leg-work to attempt to take them all out.