Chinese leader Xi Jinping has expressed support for Iran during a visit by its President as Tehran tries to expand relations with Beijing and Moscow to offset Western sanctions over its nuclear development.
The official Chinese account of Xi’s meeting with Ebrahim Raisi gave no indication whether they discussed Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Tehran supplied military drones to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government but says they were delivered before the war began.
Xi expressed support for Raisi’s government in language Beijing uses to criticize Washington’s domination of global affairs. China and Iran portray themselves, alongside Moscow, as counterweights to American power.
In a statement carried by Chinese state TV on its website, Xi said, “China supports Iran in safeguarding national sovereignty” and “resisting unilateralism and bullying.”
Xi and Raisi attended the signing of 20 cooperation agreements including trade and tourism, the Chinese government announced. Those add to a 25-year strategy agreement signed in 2021 to cooperate in developing oil, industry and other fields.
China is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian oil and a source of investment.
Iran has struggled for years under trade and financial sanctions imposed by Washington and other Western governments over what they say is Tehran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation the Iranian government denies. The United States government cut off Iran’s access to the network that connects global banks in 2018.
In July, 2022, United States sanctioned a group of front companies and individuals tied to the sale and shipment of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed the sanctions on several companies, including Iran-based Jam Petrochemical Co.
Also, last year, the U.S. took steps to punish Iran’s government after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She was detained by the morality police, who said she did not properly cover her hair with the mandatory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.
Her death set off protests in dozens of cities across the country, and the government responded with a fierce crackdown and the U.S. imposed sanctions on the morality police and the leaders of other Iranian law enforcement agencies, denying them access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S.
China Urged To Influence Iran
U.S. State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price urged China to influence Iran and lower potential threats in the region, saying that “would be in both of our interests.”
“The PRC has a role to play in very clearly signaling to Iran that its destabilizing activities, that its brinksmanship is not going to be rewarded, it’s not going to be countenanced. It is not something that the international community is prepared to sit idly by and watch,” Price said to reporters in Washington, referring to China by its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
Xi said Beijing “opposes external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs and undermining Iran’s security and stability,” according to the government statement. It said Xi promised to “work together on issues involving each other’s core interests,” but gave no details.
Raisi’s government did not immediately release details of the meeting, but the President called the two governments “friends in difficult situations” in a commentary published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, asked whether Beijing was concerned that getting closer to Iran might complicate U.S.-Chinese ties, said their “friend relations” contribute to “promotion of peace and stability in the Middle East.”
“Our relations do not target any third parties,” Wang Wenbin disclosed.
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