China is unable to save Iran from a diplomatic crisis

Benjamin Richards
3 min readDec 19, 2020

In the Middle East and in all strategic areas of the world, the United States and China, two major forces and competitors in technology, politics, arms and commodity markets, compete. Often at loggerheads are Iran and the United States. Using “Your enemy, its enemy is your friend,” China welcomed Iran and developed economic and political links.

The United States issued a warning to China in August, calling it a threat to Middle East stability and supporting the Iranian regime. The Trump administration has cautioned that any Iran-Beijing deal could intensify tensions between Tehran and the United States.

The Trump foreign secretary said that the alleged agreement between China and Iran will disrupt the Middle East.” In particular, Pempeo stressed that the issue poses a danger to Israel and also to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The agreement was characterised by political observers as a failure of the self-determination policy of the United States in the Middle East, and China took the opportunity to develop political ties with countries at war with the United States, such as Iran, instead.

This agreement represents the stable strategy of China, and how economically and politically it plans to extend into the world. China has implemented a “maximum pressure,” approach due to what the United States has termed Iran’s “relaxed” This is in the best interests of the Iranian government, which tries to evade the pressure of the United States and the economic situation facing the citizens of Iran.

A draught on strategic collaboration between China and Iran was leaked to the media in June 2020. Specifically, the agreement involves bilateral economic, political, cultural and military cooperation for the next 25 years. China has promised Iran’s biggest oil, gas and infrastructure investment of $400 billion.

There is also doubt about the agreement which stipulates that China and Iran will cooperate militarily, especially China, which is renovating its military base on the Iranian island of Kish. But China prevents strong security relations with Iran by being vigilant about not relying on major powers or driving Iran into conflict with the number one enemy of the regime, the United States.

Since 2008, Iran has tried to become a full member of the Security and Economic Alliance of Eurasia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is effectively leading China to acquire a reliable military arm.A broad bilateral agreement is emerging between Beijing and Tehran in the midst of the long-running crisis between the United States and China, and Washington is now looking at the deal as a sign of China’s full support for the Iranian regime. Washington says China is not going to help Iran, but it is going to stimulate neighbouring countries and disrupt Middle East stability.

Iran has been China’s trading partner since 2009, but it has not been a sufficient market for Beijing. Compared with Iran, Chinese trade was stronger than other Middle Eastern nations, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China-Iran trade in 2014 was $51.85 billion, or 1.2 percent of China’s total trade, but it dropped. Trade between Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran, by comparison, amounted to $69.15 billion and $54.8 billion respectively.

The sanctions imposed by Trump on Iran have led to the withdrawal of Chinese businessmen from major Iranian ventures and the suspension of trade deals with their Iranian counterparts, owing to the blockade of payment gateways and the increased economic risk of investing in the Iranian market. Because of US sanctions for the second time. This shows that, politically, economically and geographically, China can not save Iran.

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