Why China Shifted Its Support for Iran During the War

So in the beginning of the war, the Chinese were quite conservative because, uh, you know, like before, before this war, the previous war, Iran did not really perform very well, the 12 Days War, like a year ago.

So the Chinese were like a little bit suspicious of what is happening.

And also we see a lot of, uh, reports about domestic unrest before this round of the war.

And so the Chinese were like really afraid that if we give support to Iran, but Iran surrenders or Iran collapse, that would be very bad for the image, and that would be like another, like larger disaster than what happened in Syria.

You know, in the Syrian story is that China supported Assad for like 10 years, and Assad is like suddenly fall, and it was really hurting Chinese interest there.

And Iran, because Iran is like, is like the, the regional power that China like relatively trust in the region comparing to other regional powers.

And so China does not want to like take that risk.

So the Chinese like, like in the, in the first UN resolution, uh, uh, related, uh, voting, the Chinese abstained because the Chinese were not sure like what would happen in Iran.

And the Chinese does not want to irritate the Gulf States too much.

But thankfully, I don't know, maybe I should not say thankfully, but, uh, whatever, uh, Iran did not fall, and Iran performed very well in this round of the war and proved its value as a anti, uh, imperialist, uh, regional actor in the region.

And, uh, you will see that actually after that, the Chinese attitude changed, like dramatically.

Like the Chinese not only in term of UN started to, uh, vetoing all the resolutions against Iran, trying to like provide a diplomatic shelter, but also started to like continuously like buying the, like buying the oil and, uh, exporting things to Iran and providing,

at least providing civilian, um, uh, utilities that Iran can use.

And there are some reports saying that the Chinese are providing equipments that can be used for military, uh, usage, which I personally believe in, but, uh, I don't have any evidence.

It's a part of the Chinese initiative to try to u- uh, like pressure, like not pressure, like encourage Pakistan to sign this trade agreement with Iran so that the Chinese can send like civilian goods and possibly military things to Iran through that channel.

And my feeling is that, uh, there is a Chinese factor behind this thing as well, because China has a particularly close relationship with Pakistan, and China is probably trying to use this way to, uh, buy more time for Iran to in... so that the Iranians would be able to like prepare more militarily for next round of possible invasion

from the United States.