An isolated Iran finds China’s friendship has limits
Beijing denounced Trump’s 25% tariff on countries that do business with Tehran, but seems reluctant to offer more support.
HONG KONG—As street protests and a failing economy continue to put pressure on Iran’s government, its ally China has offered few signs of support. Rather than boost Tehran in its time of need, the partnership that had worried governments in the West and Middle East has instead shown signs of its limited scope and resilience.
President Trump added to the pressure on Tehran and Beijing by declaring Monday that the U.S. would impose an additional 25% tariff on countries that do business with Iran. He didn’t detail how such a tariff would be implemented, but the move risked potentially disrupting the trade truce that Trump reached with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October.
China denounced the proposed new tariffs. “China firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction, and will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, wrote on X.
When asked Monday about reports of hundreds killed in the Iranian government’s crackdown on protests, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China hoped “the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and maintain national stability."
China’s reticence to stand more firmly for Iran follows its unwillingness to offer significant support for Venezuela before the U.S. raid to seize Nicolás Maduro. China has been the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil amid U.S. sanctions.
Likewise, China is Iran’s top trading partner, buying an estimated 90% of its oil exports. To evade sanctions on Iran, the oil is often sent by ship-to-ship transfer and paid for with infrastructure financing that avoids traditional banking systems, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
About 12% of China’s total oil imports came from Iran last year, according to estimates—supplies that Chinese refiners could potentially find elsewhere.
China officially exported $8.9 billion in goods to Iran in 2024 and imported $4.4 billion in products including iron ore, copper and chemicals. That adds up to a sliver of China’s $6 trillion in global trade.
But doing business with China is critical for Iran’s isolated government.
“For Beijing, Iran is not a be-all end-all, but a way to get energy and access to the Middle East," said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. “For Iran, the PRC is in a limited way a bit of a lifeline amid all the sanctions," he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
The limits of that lifeline have become apparent as Iran’s economic difficulties fueled street protests that have created one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic Republic’s 47-year rule.
“PRC support is important, but it doesn’t completely save Iran," said Chong.
China and Iran, along with Russia and North Korea, comprise an unofficial axis called “Crink" by some Western officials, nations brought together in part by a shared wish to push back against the U.S. China has helped Russia prop up its isolated economy and provide it with dual-use materials to build its military; Iran has supplied Russia with ammunition and helped it develop drones for use in the Ukraine war, where North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to fight alongside Moscow’s.
After Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran last year, the other Crink nations did little to come to Iran’s aid. China remained concerned about exposing its banks and key companies to sanctions from the U.S. and Europe.
Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year economic cooperation agreement in 2021 that called for China to invest $400 billion across Iran’s economy in exchange for a steady supply of discounted oil. Iranian officials have urged China to do more to implement the deal, which has seen limited results amid continuing sanctions pressure.
China has helped blunt Iran’s international isolation on the security realm as well. In December, Iran hosted troops from China, Russia and seven other countries for Sahand-2025, counterterrorism drills organized under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security and economic grouping led by China and Russia.
Last week China, Iran and Russia began naval drills hosted by South Africa and organized by Brics, the organization of developing nations that Beijing and Moscow helped Iran join.
But appeals from Iranian officials for more help from China have been met with scathing criticism on Chinese social media, Tuvia Gering, a China researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, wrote in his newsletter Discourse Power on Monday.
He highlighted a post by Zhanhao, a popular nationalist-leaning account on WeChat, that sharply expressed such sentiment.
“Iran continues to expect China to take the bullet for it," the post read. “That’s pure fantasy!"
Write to Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com
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