Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked China on Sunday to persuade Iran not to follow through on threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, where approximately 20% of the world’s oil production flows, following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

And China apparently got the message.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them [Iran] about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said, The Daily Wire reported Monday. “If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake; it’s economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours. It would be, I think, a massive escalation that would merit a response, not just by us, but from others.”

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