Beijing has used the conflict to reach out to the Gulf and Indo-Pacific nations while gaining a better understanding of the US military, the newspaper says The US-Israeli war against Iran has handed China a strategic opening to chip away at US influence on every major front, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a classified intelligence analysis. Two US officials familiar with the matter told the newspaper that the document was produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence directorate for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. It is said to focus on four main dimensions: Diplomatic, informational, military, and economic. This comes ahead of US President Donald Trump’s high-stakes talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. Since the US and Israel started the war in late February, China has reportedly sold weapons to Persian Gulf countries, which came under retaliatory Iranian missile and drone strikes, the report says.…