China and Iran: a relationship built on trade, weapons and oil
- Beijing supplied military hardware to Tehran in the Iran-Iraq war and has been among its top three arms suppliers in the past decade
- China remains Iran’s top trade partner, but oil imports slumped after US sanctions
Amid its long-running conflict with the US, Iran has increasingly turned to China for aid to boost its military and to help protect its economy from trade sanctions imposed by Washington.
China remains Iran’s biggest trading partner, but its oil imports from the country have fallen sharply as a result of US sanctions. In November 2019, the last available data, China imported 547,758 tonnes of Iranian oil, down from 3.07 million tonnes in April, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. Trade between China and Iran in 2018 totaled US$35.13 billion, with crude oil accounting for about half, or US$15 billion.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled out of an agreement aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear development programme and reimposed crippling sanctions on its economy.
While the sanctions have dented oil trade between the two countries, they remain strong partners on the military front. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China was among the top three arms transfer partners for Iran, exporting US$269 million of weapons from 2008 to 2018.