The Islamic Republic of Iran is getting by with a little help from its friends. Moscow has played a significant role in boosting Tehran. But so too has Beijing. And that aid is reaching new heights.
China’s Foreign Ministry has claimed that it is “working tirelessly for peace” and seeking an end to the war between Iran and the United States and Israel. But China is talking out of both sides of its mouth.
In fact, China has helped Iran wage war. The Chinese Communist Party has long viewed the Islamic Republic as its chief foil in the Middle East, capable of using its proxies to both attack and distract America and its allies.
Beijing has also looked to Tehran for its energy needs. By some estimates, 80% to 90% of Iran’s oil exports go to China, constituting as much as 15% of the Middle Kingdom’s total oil imports. And since Iran is heavily sanctioned, that oil is heavily discounted. China has played a key role in sustaining Iran, just as it has done with Russia, by helping the country evade sanctions.
China and Iran have also signed a series of “comprehensive strategic partnership agreements” that cover economic, security, and technological cooperation. Yet, as the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted on March 16, “China has avoided defense commitments to Iran and is not likely to take significant action to support” the country amid the current war.
But what the CCP says in public is a far cry from what it does in private.
AMERICA’S AI RACE AGAINST CHINA GETS A BOOST
Beijing’s support for its Middle Eastern ally extends beyond cheap oil. China has supplied top surveillance technology to Iran, enabling it to systematically repress its people and maintain its grip on power. And in 2021, China allegedly gave Iran full military access to its BeiDou satellite navigation system, which Tehran can potentially utilize for drone and missile attacks in the Middle East and beyond. In January 2025 and March 2026, ships linked to China transported sodium perchlorate, a key precursor used in solid rocket fuel for missiles.
But it is with drones that the relationship might be reaching heights previously unseen. Iran’s infamous Shahed drones have been used as low-cost weapons on the battlefields of Ukraine, keenly illustrating how Tehran’s terrorist tentacles extend past the Middle East.
China itself has been a key supplier of dual-use and defense-related technologies. As the USCC has noted, “Chinese components, including sensors, voltage converters, and semiconductors, have been found in Iranian drones,” both those used by Iran’s regional proxies, but also those used in Ukraine.
And if Iran is in fact using the BeiDou satellite system for targeting during a hot war against the U.S., it stands to reason that China would be interested in how its components and navigation system are faring against the American military. The U.S., after all, is China’s pacing challenge. The People’s Liberation Army has been preparing for war against America for years, even constructing exact replicas of American battleships for target practice in the deserts of northwest China.
Indeed, it’s entirely possible, and even likely, that China has advisers in Iran to study both how the U.S. military operates and which technologies and tactics work. This would conceivably include drone operators, among other roles.
Chinese spies have infiltrated Western companies and political institutions. It stands to reason that they, and possibly other allies such as the North Koreans and Russians, would have assets in Iran to observe, and even advise, on how best to wage war on the U.S. military.
CHINA PREPARES FOR SUBMARINE WAR AGAINST AMERICA
Wars are laboratories. Foreign observers in hostile conflicts are hardly a new occurrence. The U.S. had soldiers, including the future commander of the Union Army, George McClellan, watching the Crimean War. And European armies also sent observers to study the tactics of the U.S. Civil War.
Sometimes countries send technology and advisers to use other conflicts as “trial runs.” In these cases, they do more than observe. They participate.
Perhaps most famously, the fascist powers of Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany used the Spanish Civil War to test equipment and tactics. Ditto for Stalin’s Soviet Union, which supplied and aided the other side. All took lessons with them.
In that sense, the current war might be a dress rehearsal for the next.
