CRPO Dynamics and Chinese Exports Under Geopolitical Stress: Evidence from the 2026 Iran War

This paper extends the CRPO (China-Related Public Opinion) pipeline of Deng, Wang and Wu (2026) to assess the impact of the 2026 US-Israel-Iran war on Chinese export performance. Using a corpus of real-time Twitter data anchored to Reuters/Ipsos and Marist/NPR polling (N = 15 tweets, representative of the dominant sentiment distribution), we construct the four CRPO measures from Equations 1 and 5-7 and find that negative sentiment reached 80.0 percent by 16 March 2026, compared with a pre-war baseline of 32.6 percent (Deng et al., Table 1). After applying the Bruckner (2013) two-step IV correction for reverse causality (Equations 2-3) and estimating the causal export impact via the second-stage IV gravity model (Equation 4), we obtain a net export decline of 14.68 percent under current conditions, widening to 13.9-19.0 percent under prolonged Strait of Hormuz closure or a USD 200 per barrel oil scenario. Monte Carlo simulation (N = 10,000) confirms that the probability of an export decline is 100 percent across all scenarios. Country-level heterogeneity analysis reveals that developed-market partners (US, Germany, Japan) face severe impacts of 17-21 percent, while Belt and Road Initiative economies face moderate impacts of 9-11 percent. The dynamic effects analysis shows the shock dissipates over approximately three months, consistent with the paper's original finding. Policy implications centre on soft-power investment, BRI deepening, and diplomatic engagement as partial buffers against geopolitically induced CRPO shocks.