China and Iran relations in the context of the changing world order

China has been the Islamic Republic of Iran’s most significant external supporter from the outset. Since the American withdrawal from the atomic deal (JCPOA) in 2018, China has consistently criticised the US unilateral sanctions but has simultaneously put its investments on hold and significantly reduced its trade with Iran. China is obviously important for Iran at times of sanctions and of conflict with the US.

This chapter focuses on why Iran matters to China and identifies three areas: energy, economy, and the geopolitical location of Iran. These make Iran important in China’s global development policy, where the Belt and Road initiative is at the kernel of geoeconomic and geopolitical strategy. Both China and Iran criticise the worldview of the Western liberal order and argue for an alternative. China has increasingly promoted itself as a civilisational state with a long history of a different worldview to that of the liberal order and argues for a multipolar world order based on other civilisational worldviews, including that of Iran.

Recent developments, with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Iranian support to Russia, the continued turmoil inside Iran, and the failure to restore the atomic deal, are big challenges to Iran–China relations.