When China’s foreign minister Wang Yi spoke to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Monday, he told him that Beijing supports Tehran “in defending its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and national dignity, and supports Iran in protecting its legitimate rights and interests”.
China was swift and clear in its condemnation of the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel as a clear breach of international law, warning against a return to the law of the jungle.
“Major powers cannot arbitrarily attack other countries based on their military superiority,” Wang told French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
China, Russia and Iran took part in joint military exercises off the Iranian coast last month as part of a 20-year, tripartite strategic partnership signed last year that includes intelligence sharing.
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In 2021, China signed a 25-year comprehensive co-operation agreement with Iran promising to invest $400 billion (€345 billion) in the Islamic republic’s economy.
But as Iran discovered during last year’s attacks by the US, and Venezuela found out last January, being China’s partner is not the same as being an ally.
In keeping with a long-standing policy, China in both cases offered diplomatic and rhetorical support but there was never any question of a military intervention on behalf of either country.
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China has only one formal ally in North Korea, a historical legacy of the Korean War in the 1950s.
Even the “friendship without limits” hailed by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin is less than an alliance and carries no formal or informal obligation to come to one another’s aid militarily.
This became clear during the Ukraine war when, although the European Union complained about Chinese companies selling “dual use” products that could have military as well as civilian use, Beijing has not offered any military assistance to Moscow.
Its support for Russia has been diplomatic and economic, both as a source of products no longer available from elsewhere and a market for Russian energy.
China is the most important market for Iranian oil but Beijing has other relationships in the region that are either equally or more important, notably with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
This is why China has urged Iran to consider the “reasonable concerns” of its neighbours who have become targets in Tehran’s retaliation against the US.
China’s primary interest in the Middle East lies in restoring stability so that normal trade can resume and although it enjoys a close relationship with the Islamic Republic, Beijing will seek good relations with any government in Tehran that might replace it.
Meanwhile, the fact that the US is expending so much firepower, money and psychic energy in Iran has the upside for China that Washington has less bandwidth to pursue its rivalry with Beijing.
