China’s Misplaced Hopes in Iran: A Misjudgement in Three Parts

The Biden Administration, following the example set by its immediate predecessor, the first Trump Administration, sought to counter China in several ways. Beijing soon recognised that Biden, who it thought would roll back some of the tariffs imposed on it by Trump, had no such plans and even expanded those measures, leading Biden to be seen by China as a “polite Trump.” Recognising further that there was bipartisan animosity toward it in Washington, China began to establish closer relationships with those countries it believed shared its own antipathy towards the US. It pursued and established closer relations with, among other states, Venezuela, Russia and Iran, because it also perceived Tehran as key to influencing the Middle East. This paper will focus broadly on the China-Middle East relationship and specifically on China-Iran relations.