Asian Angle | Who would win a US-Iran war? A strong and peaceful China
- If Washington pours its money into a Middle Eastern conflict, it will compromise its ability to ‘pivot to Asia’
- Meanwhile, Beijing could play catch up on military capabilities and become too powerful to be challenged by Washington
But well before this time of “national humiliation”, both China and Iran had a long history of dynastic empires, which ruled across the Middle East and greater East Asia.
In China, it was the Han, Tang and Qing empires; and in Persia, it was the Parthian, Sassanid, Abbasid and Safavid empires.
In those ancient times, it was the linkage of camel caravan routes south of the Caspian Sea that were hugely important to China’s overland Great Silk Road from East Asia through Central Asia, the Middle East and well into Europe.
Helped by seaborne junks that powered across the Indian Ocean on the monsoon winds, the route through Persia became one of the world’s most vital until the maritime revolution brought by the Portuguese and Dutch in the early modern period.