Sino-Iranian Relations

Throughout history, both China1 and Iran have both been leaders in their respective regions. Iran of the Persian Empire and China before the Opium Wars were both ranked highly as the richest kingdoms in the world at that time. Their kingdoms were both the strongest powers of their time, only to be exploited by Western powers. This obstacle strengthened their existing relationship by creating anti-Western sentiment and civilizational solidarity; a bond that still exists today.

Despite the downfall of their empires, China and Iran have recovered and become dominant powers in the international community. Today their alliance is a major concern to the international community because of China’s support of Iran’s development of nuclear energy.
China and Iran’s history of friendly sentiments goes back to the time of their empires. Their trade relations date back to the Han and Parthian2 empires. There were over a dozen caravan routes connecting major cities in modern day China and Iran in what is known today as the Silk Road. Many Persians and Arabs from the Parthian empire moved to Guangzhou and Hanoi3 for business and trade purposes. Large amounts of Sassanian4 coins were uncovered in China, further demonstrating proof of ancient trade alliances.


Friendly ties extended past monetary reasons and into cultural, scientific, and social aspects for both nations. The Chinese were glad to aide the Persians by sharing their astronomical discoveries, printing techniques, and the advent of paper money. In return, Persia shared its research in alchemy, mathematics, Euclidean geometry, medicine, and pharmacology. The notorious blue and white porcelain pottery that is displayed in Chinese palaces and museums also influenced the Persians not just artistically, in that the Persians made a significant fiscal profit in the blue and white porcelain-ware industry (Garver, “Twenty Centuries of Friendly Cooperation”).

Buddhism’s popularity in China is indebted to the first translator of the Buddhist sutra into the Chinese language, a Parthian prince. Persian poetry also influenced poetry of the Chinese Tang dynasty, which is considered the peak of classical Chinese poetry. The Tang period is the origin of the flourishing “Tang shi” and “Tang si” style of poetry, which is still a required study for all Chinese students today. In addition to religious and literary influences, Persian performance art such as the Zoroastrianism dance and magic routines, in addition to Persian cuisine, both delighted and fascinated the Chinese.

China and Iran’s anti-Western sentiment and civilizational solidarity has lead to the development of cooperation between two influential countries that continue to dominate international politics. Although they are not unconditional allies, they hold an underlying sympathy for each other due to their similar history of humiliation from Western powers. As Peng Zhen, the 1985 chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (the Chinese Parliament) observed, “[China and Iran] had similar experiences [as] victims of imperialism and colonialism and [are] subjected to hegemonic threat today” (Garver, China and Iran). China and Iran are both proud countries known for their strong feelings of nationalism. The Persians invented algebra, the modern version of chess, the modern formula for soap, and the windmill, while the Chinese invented the wheelbarrow, the kite, the abacus, gunpowder, and firecrackers. Although in present day they cannot compete with the West’s technological advancements, they are not quick to forget their ancient civilizations’ significant contributions to science. They are currently working to regain their power in the world, and they have made significant strides in becoming major players in the international community.

A 2000 joint communique proposed by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and former Iranian president Khatami identifying themselves as the “two great civilizations in Asia”. In 1998, Mohammed Khatami presented the idea of “dialogue among nations”, calling the international community to practice tolerance in order to cooperate for global security, including peacekeeping and the environment. In 2001, Khatami developed a theory called “Dialogue among Civilizations”, and presented it to the United Nations, asking Kofi Anan to make 2001 a “year of dialogue among civilizations.” This was in response to Samuel P. Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” theory that specifically targeted Confucian civilization (China) and Islamic civilization as the two major threats to world peace. The ideology of dialogue among civilizations is still an important concept that the UN continues to utilize in their work towards building peace.
Throughout different times in history, China and Iran have formed conflicting alliances, yet underneath this China has never abandoned Iran as a Third World brother. The shah came to power in Iran through the aide of the United States, and was actually the most Western society Iran had been and would be its entire history. It was shocking that a communist country would support a country so closely aligned with the United States, the poster child for imperialism; however, Mao had his reasons. The PRC supported the shah, despite its hatred for U.S. imperialism and was careful never to publicize any anti-shah statements in its media. This was because of Mao’s hope to unite third world countries against all Western imperialist countries. Mao recognized the significant role of oil in the world and knew that the third world possessed most of the oil in the world. Mao particularly applauded Tehran’s decision to raise oil prices in the 1970s.

Although the PRC (People’s Republic of China) under Mao’s rule and the Kingdom of Iran under the shah’s rule had conflicts, both Beijing and Tehran realized the benefits of supporting each other rather than being in opposition. It was equally shocking that Iran opened itself to China despite the shah’s anti-communist sentiments. However, the shah was very strategic in his thinking. The shah was by no means loyal to the U.S. Iran wanted the U.S. to see that it could survive independently from it. It also strategically used the Sino-Iranian relationship as a threat to Russia. Iran wanted Russia to cut-off its support to Iraq and threatened a Sino-Iran-U.S. bloc if Russia continued to support Iraq.

Although the relationship was not completely solid during the time of Mao and shah, they were able to see the benefit in allying. However, the relationship was about to become rockier. In 1979, when Khomeini, an Islamic militant came to power, he and his followers resented the Chinese support of the shah. He proposed a “Neither West, nor East” foreign policy plan. In October 1978, months before he came to power, he warned Iran that:
“China and Russia like the U.S. and Britain feed on the blood of our people…try to be independent without any inclination toward East or West…. Foreign policies of America, England, Russia, and China and others have support the corrupt regime of the shah and his crimes. Have destroyed our economy. Have made our army dependent. Have contaminated our culture.” (Toukouyama)

When John Garver interviewed a retired PRC-ambassador to Iran about his time in Tehran, he said he saw anti-China graffiti covering the walls of Tehran (Garver, China and Iran, 58).
During this time, the ideologies from both countries flipped. Iran formerly had the strongest ties with the United States it would ever have to present day, and switched to being ruled by an extremist Islamic party; whereas, China would start it’s (economic) ties with the United States under Deng Xiaoping . This would be the strongest effort China had made to cooperate with the United States for years past. China’s shift away from Communism and into capitalism under the guise of social democracy was an additional reason for Khomeini’s mistrust and hatred towards China.

Beijing continued to pursue an alliance with Tehran, despite the challenges the Tehran gave the Chinese government. China was an atheist nation who has always ruled under the principle that she will not interfere with religious affairs in other nations, and she expects the same respect from other nations. Tehran gave Beijing no such respect. Although Iran’s Islamic beliefs were of little concern to China, China’s atheist, non-Islamic beliefs were blasphemous and heathen in Iran’s perspective. Iran did form relationships in China, but not the way Beijing would have hoped. Iran took an interest in the Muslim community of China in the region of Xinjiang. Khomeini was an Islamic internationalist whom felt that his mission and purpose was to spread Islam in the world. He did that by building mosques and madrasses (Islamic schools) in China without the permission of the Chinese government. Iran also offered scholarship programs to Chinese Muslims, allowing students to move to Iran under deceptive motives and where these Chinese Muslims were educated on the principles of extremist Islamic religion. They were then either sent home to further spread the fervor of Islam or allowed to stay in Iran without the Chinese government’s approval. Although Beijing continued to push its principle of noninterference, it wasn’t until the Iran-Iraq war that Tehran began to realize the value of cooperation with the Chinese government.

The Sino-Iranian relationship fell to an all time low during 1979 through the early 1980s but by 1987 China had earned back the trust of Iran through supporting Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Throughout the late 1980s, China became one of Iran’s major suppliant of arms. China further secured Iran’s trust by not allowing U.S. pressure to stop arms sales to Iran. China became the only member of the U.N. Permanent Security Council to consistently step up to Iran’s defense in the 80s, and stood up to the U.S. by asking the withdrawal of troops from the Gulf coast. Today Sino-Iranian relations have reached an all time high, as China has proved its commitment to its Third World brothers (especially Iran) by resisting Western dominance. Despite China’s 1996-97 decisions to suspend arms sales to Iran, China has by remained supportive of Iran’s nuclear energy development efforts.

Perhaps the biggest question being asked by the world today is whether or not Iran will become a nuclear state. Will China trade Nuclear Technology in exchange for Iranian Oil? In 2005, studies showed that China consumed 12% of the world’s energy. This places China as the country with the second highest energy consumption in the world (United States consumes 24%). Only 6% of oil was imported in 1993, but today, China’s dependency on oil has increased its import of oil to a dramatic 60% (Shuja). Based on their history of trade, the reality is that Iran could likely become a nuclear state. Although there have been a few exceptions where China have encouraged sanctions on Iran’s munitions imports, overall, China remains one of the largest foreign suppliers of Iran’s munitions, even if it sold to Iran indirectly. (To avoid international criticism, and to appear neutral during the Iran-Iraq war, China sold weapons to Iran through Syria and North Korea.)

An IAEA inspection in 2003 confirmed nuclear energy development in Iran, but cited the sites for future power plants. Things changed in March 2004 when the United States’ Bush administration pushed for the punishment of the development of nuclear energy in Iran, China’s veto in the security council were one of the major factors that came to Iran’s rescue. Iran had kept its developments secret, and because of that, the US feels it urgent need to stop uranium-enrichment. The Bush administration has continually targeted Iran specifically to be investigated by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association) and pushed other countries to impose sanctions on Iran. Iran has repeatedly denied development of nuclear weapons, and has asserted its right to develop nuclear energy. Of the five countries on the UN Permanent Security Council, China has been Iran’s strongest advocate.

By September 2004, the UN had decided to give Iran a deadline of November 2004 to suspend all nuclear activity. Iran initially said they would suspend activity in exchange for trade concessions and stopping sanctions. In the end; however, when it came time to negotiate, Iran disagreed with one of the stipulations.

Although Iran and China have a good economic relationship, the US-China economic relationship is much stronger. Economic sanctions are not enough to scare China, nor Russia, whom have both supplied Iran with advanced missiles and technology since the mid-1980s. They are responsible for Iran’s acquirement of anti-ship missiles (i.e.: the Silkworm), surface-to-surface missiles, and long-range ballistic missiles (i.e.: Shihab-3 and Shihab-4 missiles) (www.atimes.com). Economic benefits from the US are not enough to sway China to side with them over Iran on issues. Despite objections from the United States, China has for the most part, sided with Iran, and has continued to push for Iran’s military development.

As of July 2007, the U.N. has imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran’s nuclear development program, but Iran continues as before; ignoring the sanctions. The United States (with support from Germany, France, and Britain), are proposing to impose a third sanction. China and Russia continue to stand in the way. Although neither China nor Russia have refused sanctions altogether, the United States has not achieved the strict level of rigid sanctions it would like the international community to impose on Iran.
"’China is the hardest nut, because its economic interests with Iran are growing so rapidly and across such a spectrum,’ said one Bush administration official” (Wall Street Journal, “Stiffer Iran Sanctions Sought”).
As aforementioned, Iran is becoming a threat to global security due to its potential to become a nuclear state. This reality is being realized with the help of China, in addition to support from Russia. Should China be considered a culprit? Can we blame China for destabilizing world peace? Iran still denies any progression towards becoming a nuclear state, and justifies its nuclear energy development:
"Iran's regime points to America's threatening talk as a reason to defend itself; to America, Iran's nuclear work makes it a potential target. If Iran agreed to halt its uranium and plutonium activities, and America agreed not to attack, might that open the way to talks that could help finesse the nuclear problem for good? America has resisted the idea of such talks." (The Economist, "Unstoppable?")

There are many strategic reasons for the Sino-Iranian nuclear cooperation. Iran is a key ally for China in keeping a cap on U.S. hegemony. Increasing U.S. power would mean increased pressure on China to concede on sensitive issues such as Taiwanese independence, religious freedom for the Tibetan-Buddhists and Muslims in Xinjiang, relaxing on censorship (ie: Google, Yahoo searches), and owning up to human rights (ie: TianAnMen Square Massacre).
The United States is actually considered to be as much of a threat to international peace by most Third World countries just as much as Iran is considered a threat to international peace by most First World countries. The United States is strongly opposed to Iran having nuclear weapons, yet the U.S. is home to the highest number of WMDs per country in the world. Nuclear deterrence worked during the “Cold War”… Would it work in Iran? One main point of skepticism against the development of a nuclear weapons program in Iran is that the region is very unstable, and that the energy and technology would not simply be in the government’s control. Many self-employed Islamic extremist groups could gain access to the weapons. This theory is based on the assumption that the Iranian government would have the sense not to go M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction).

These two countries are rising so rapidly in power and influence that they both need to be considered in foreign policy. Today, China is known as one of the most influential and rapidly growing nations in the world. It is the most populated country in the world with 1.3 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion inhabitants (CIA WorldFactbook). Studies predict that in approximately twenty years, China will surpass the United States as a global economic superpower. Iran’s geographical location in the Persian Gulf, with the Gulf’s access to oil and energy, makes Iran a power that cannot be ignored. The Persian Gulf alone is home to 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves. According to a 2004 statistic, Iran possessed 7 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and 15 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves.

Today, the United States demonizes Iran as one of the three countries that form what current President Bush termed the “Axis of Evil” in 2003. The United States also continues to criticize China for its human rights record. Although in the past, Chinese and Persian empires were brought down by Western powers, the current state of affairs in China and Iran indicates that they will not allow history to repeat itself. The Sino-Iranian alliance has shifted the balance of power in the world, and all countries need to make strides in understanding each other’s histories in order to develop better policies. Whether a nation allies or wars against either China or Iran, they are both countries that will play increasingly key roles in international relations.