China just made itself the backstop for any US-Iran agreement, promising to guarantee the US will 'accept at least some of Iran's conditions' from the 10-point framework. And to prove it means business, China vetoed the UN Security Council resolution on the Strait of Hormuz today. The kicker: the Hormuz crisis is actively hurting China too. They took the hit anyway as a trust signal to Tehran. Beijing is now more central to this negotiation than any US ally. That's the story.