A senior Chinese diplomat endorsed Iran’s negotiating position during a high-stakes meeting about the rehabilitation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, even as President Joe Biden hopes Beijing will be a “partner” in these negotiations.
“This is a question involving the fundamental principle of rights and wrongs. As a victim, Iran’s legitimate requirement should, in the first place, be affirmed and catered for,” Chinese Ambassador Wang Qun, the top Chinese diplomat to the United Nations in Vienna, told state media. “In order to break the current impasse, it is imperative that the U.S. return to the JCPOA at an early date by lifting all unlawful and unilateral sanctions.”
Those comments align Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s regime with Tehran’s hard-line posture, as Iranian officials pressure Biden to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” unilaterally. Biden’s team has denounced Trump’s policy but avoided lifting the sanctions, citing the need to ensure that Iran likewise returns to compliance with the deal while laying the groundwork for additional measures to restrain Iranian aggression — an initiative that U.S. officials hope will find support even among American rivals.
“I think principally and strategically, this is an area where we do have aligned interests with Moscow and aligned interests with Beijing,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday. “They have sought to uphold the JCPOA, and we do see them as partners in this fairly narrow effort.”
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That analysis misunderstands China’s position, according to Iran hawks skeptical of Biden’s approach to managing threats posed by the Gulf regime. Iran signed up for China’s Belt and Road Initiative last month, as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced a “permanent and strategic” partnership between Beijing and Tehran.
“The Chinese see this as a zero-sum game: They see American power and prestige as a threat to the expansion of their influence, [which leads Beijing to the conclusion that] anything that puts the U.S. in a stronger geopolitical position is bad for China,” the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano argued.
Some members of the Trump administration shared Price’s perception of China’s posture earlier in their tenure, but that view was shaken by Beijing’s insistence on purchasing Iranian oil despite the threat of U.S. sanctions.
“We literally offered the Chinese to replace Iranian oil, barrel for barrel, with the Saudis … and they still pursued illicit means of importing Iranian crude,” a former Trump administration official said.
That experience impelled a reassessment of China’s intentions. “They clearly see [Iran] as a potential client-state in the Middle East,” the former official said. “I think, in their mind, they actually believe the JCPOA limits Iran’s nuclear advancement and therefore is the de-escalation they need to prevent any war in the Middle East … [but] it’s not just about the oil supply. There is something more about being with non-U.S.-aligned power in the region.
That’s not the U.S. position, despite Blinken’s support for the nuclear deal. “Our strategy sees the mutual return to the JCPOA as necessary but insufficient,” Price told reporters Wednesday. “We seek not only a longer and stronger deal, but over the longer term, working with partners in the region, follow-on agreements to address [Iranian human rights abuses, support for terrorism, and missile development]. We don’t need to arrive at those follow-on agreements for us to hold Iran to account for its behavior because we will continue to do that right now.”
Blinken’s point man for the Iran talks, special representative Rob Malley, is in Vienna for a meeting of the nuclear agreement signatories — an assembly that U.S. officials regard as “a healthy step forward” toward Biden’s desired goal, as Price put it Tuesday. The talks do not involve direct conversations between Malley and Iranian officials, as such a meeting was precluded by U.S. and Iranian demands that the other side relent first.
“The team on the ground in Vienna has had consultations with our European allies as well as with our Russian and Chinese partners; they, in turn, have met with the Iranian delegation,” Price told reporters Wednesday. “We have heard more about Iran’s position. Our partners have, in turn, heard from us more about our position, which they have then relayed to the Iranians. And, in short, this is what we had hoped to accomplish at the outset.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the gathering as “a new success” for Tehran. “A single voice is heard today, which is everyone around the nuclear deal has come to the conclusion that there is no better solution than the JCPOA and no other way but the full implementation of the JCPOA,” he said.
China’s envoy in Vienna insisted that Biden “lift all … unlawful sanctions against Iran” in order to restore the nuclear deal while tapping the brakes on Blinken’s broader ambition.
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“The original intention of its negotiation is to address the Iranian nuclear issue rather than all regional security issues,” the Chinese ambassador told state media. “As for the relevant concern on regional security, it’s imperative that it be separated and dealt with at a different platform vis-a-vis the JCPOA.”
