President Donald Trump recently announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to stop providing weapons to Iran, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Trump stated that he had written to Xi and received a response confirming that China is not supplying arms to Tehran’s regime. He characterized this agreement as a practical step toward cooperation between the United States and China, particularly amid the regional turmoil disrupting global energy supplies.
Trump’s announcement could potentially end a military partnership between China and Iran that’s been going on for over 40 years. When Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980, triggering the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Republic faced Western arms embargoes. Soon after, China stepped up as a key supplier at a time when Iran’s leaders were desperate for guns.
One of the first, and largest, documented weapons deals between the two countries goes back to 1981, when China delivered 107mm rockets – according to the INSS, which Iran later reverse-engineered. By 1983, the CIA reported that China was Iran’s second-largest arms provider after North Korea, with agreements valued at around $444 million for “munitions, radars, and other related equipment.” Sales soon spiked between the two; between 1984 and 1986, arms transfers reached an estimated $1–2 billion.
That relationship between China and Iran gained more strategic value with the introduction of anti-ship missiles that directly threatened shipping routes.
Starting in 1985, Iran received hundreds of Chinese HY-2 “Silkworm” missiles and launchers, per The Middle East Review of International Affairs. Iran even test-fired one successfully in February 1987, which – seemingly overnight – spiked risks to oil tankers around the world. China also supplied a variety of different classifications of anti-ship missiles, hundreds of battle tanks, and other weapons to Iranian leaders around that time.
China supplied weapons to both Iran and Iraq during the war, sustaining their money-making priorities while staying somewhat neutral. Yet, even back in the 80’s, some early weapons shipments reportedly went through North Korea as a middleman to reduce political blowback.
After the 1988 ceasefire, relationships evolved. In the 1990s, China remained a huge arms provider, second only to Russia in some eras, with deals involving missile technology, steel, and production facilities. Other big deals in 1992 and 1996 highlighted how both China and Iran were still in cahoots.
But international sanctions and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, followed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, increased global scrutiny for the duo.
In 2016, when describing nuclear negotiations with Iran, Former President Obama said, “Over the years, Iran moved closer and closer to having the ability to build a nuclear weapon, but from presidents Franklin Roosevelt to John F Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, the United States has never been afraid to pursue diplomacy with our adversaries… We’ve seen the results under the nuclear deal that we our allies and partners reached with Iran last year, Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. The region, the United States and the world, will be more secure.”
However, threats to break that “deal” only continued.
After 2015, China stopped a majority of its large-scale weapons sales to Iran. Cooperation then shifted to delivering missile and drone parts and providing technical support. Chinese electronics, sensors, and materials have since turned up in Iranian drones used by proxy forces and even supplied to the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
Now, concerns have resurfaced about possible weapons deals, including Chinese air defense systems, prompting Trump to warn Beijing’s leaders of steep tariffs if they continued talks with Iran.
Impact on North Korea and Russia
If China actually follows through on its pledge to Trump, it could send ripples through the loose alliance often called the “CRINK” axis – China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. These countries have been working together by sharing weapons, technology, and sanctions-busting tricks to strengthen each other’s military programs for decades now.
Iran has been sending Russia “Shahed-style” drones and ballistic missiles for the war in Ukraine – many of which rely on Chinese components, according to The Atlantic Council.
North Korea has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery shells and missiles, while keeping up its long-standing missile cooperation with Iran, per Fox News. If Chinese support to Iran dries up, Russia and North Korea might have to redirect scarce resources to help fill Iran’s gaps.
