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China's Support for Iran Shows Its Limits as U.S. Ramps Up Pressure
(Al Jazeera) John Power - China has long been a rare partner to Iran, with the economic heft to blunt U.S. efforts to strangle the Iranian economy. Yet even as China opposes President Trump's latest pressure campaign, few observers expect it to go much further than the economic links it has thus far forged with Iran. China's foreign policy seeks to balance relations with numerous countries, including the U.S. and the Gulf states, limiting its appetite to prop up the Iranian leadership at any cost, analysts say. "China, with broader global interests, can only actively promote de-escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict, and cannot and will not engage in fierce confrontation with the U.S. for Iran's sake," said Hongda Fan, director of the China-Middle East Center at Shaoxing University in China. As Iran's top trade partner, China has taken up to 90% of Iranian oil exports. Iranian crude, however, accounts for only 2% of China's overall energy mix. Fearing exposure to U.S. sanctions, China's major state-owned refiners such as Sinopec and PetroChina have shunned Iranian oil for years, leaving the trade to independent "teapot" refiners with minimal links to the dollar-based global financial system. "The legitimate question is why third countries should be expected to adopt Washington's unilateral economic policy towards another sovereign state," said Zichen Wang, deputy secretary-general of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) think tank in Beijing. "That does not, however, mean that Beijing will provide Tehran with a blank check." While China pledged to invest up to $400 billion in Iran over 25 years as part of a strategic partnership agreement signed in 2021, in 2023, Iran's then deputy economy minister, Ali Fekri, complained that China's level of investment since the agreement was only $185 million. "For China, Iran is valuable - but replaceable across many dimensions. Iranian oil matters, but China can obtain energy from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, and numerous other suppliers," said Mordechai Chaziza, an expert on China's Middle East policy at Ashkelon Academic College in Israel.