HONG KONG — For much of the past two decades, China has maintained a delicate balance in its military relationship with Iran, often offering indirect assistance rather than arms sales.
That approach is now drawing attention again after U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were evaluating whether China may have sent portable missiles to Iran in recent weeks. President Donald Trump said he would impose one on Chinese products if the assessment is confirmed. China denied the allegation, calling it “pure fabrication,” and said it “will react strongly” if the Trump administration goes ahead with the tariffs.
American officials said information obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies was inconclusive. But if proven, they would represent a significant tactical shift in how Beijing supports its closest strategic partner in the Middle East.
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Chinese arms sales to Iran soared in the 1980s and largely disappeared in the last decade to comply with a United Nations embargo and U.S. sanctions. Chinese support for Iran in recent years has come, instead, through components that can be used in both civilian technologies and missiles and drones.
China has a keen interest in the crisis in Iran. About a third of its total crude oil imports come from the Persian Gulf.
See how China’s military support for Iran has evolved over the years
The 1980s: the boom years
The start of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 coincided with major market reforms in China, when the leader at the time, Deng Xiaoping, ordered state-owned companies to reduce their dependence on government support and start seeking commercial profit.
Chinese state-owned defense companies were suddenly allowed to export their products. This resulted in a flood of Chinese missiles, fighter jets, tanks, armored vehicles and assault rifles being sold to Iran starting in 1982 and peaking in 1987, according to the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute.
At the same time, China sold even more weapons to Iraq, creating a situation in which the two warring sides faced each other using the same Chinese weapons.
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The Reagan administration opposed China’s arms sales to Iran, especially the Silkworm anti-ship cruise missiles. Tehran used these missiles in attacks in Kuwaiti waters in 1987 that hit an American-owned oil tanker and another registered in the United States.
The United States responded by restricting exports of some high-tech products to China. China has denied selling weapons directly to Iran but said it would do more to prevent its military exports from reaching the country through intermediaries.
The 1990s: technology transfer
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After the war, Iran began to develop its own military industrial base with help from China. One of its main products was the Noor anti-ship cruise missile, which was developed by reverse engineering from the purchase of Chinese C-802 cruise missiles.
“China has played an important role in supporting Iran’s military modernization for decades, especially in developing the country’s missile capabilities,” said Brian Hart, a researcher at the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Iran has also received help from China to build missile production facilities and even to erect a missile testing range east of Tehran, China expert Bates Gill wrote in the Middle East Review of International Affairs.
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Under pressure from the United States to reduce sales of ready-made weapons, especially missiles, to Iran, China began to increase exports of machine tools and components that could be used for both military and civilian purposes.
The 2000s: Dual-Use Technologies
In 2006, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. China voted in favor of the resolution and largely stopped entering into new formal arms contracts with Tehran.
The change had as much to do with regional strategy as it did with international law. Starting in the mid-2010s, China began to deepen its strategic relations with Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s traditional rivals, as well as Qatar.
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China has continued to supply Iran with dual-use technologies and materials that have helped the country accumulate an arsenal of missiles and drones.
This included chemicals used to produce fuel for ballistic missiles and drone components such as radio frequency connectors and turbine blades.
But Hart said it still represented “a critical form of support given Iran’s reliance on ballistic missiles and drones to attack U.S. and Israeli forces and other countries in the region.”
The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong shell companies that the government says were created to obtain parts and supplies for ballistic missiles and drones for Iran.
Suspicions are also growing that Iran is using its access to China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system — an alternative to the US Global Positioning System — for military purposes.
Last month, a US congressional agency said BeiDou may have been used to guide Iranian drone and missile attacks in the Middle East.
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