Even so, Iran remains strategically useful to China, the world’s top crude importer. At present, that reliance has become even more important beyond a sizable $2 billion worth of oil – roughly 15% of its oil import, per Kplr – it buys from Iran every month.
Now in its third month, the war is also disrupting China’s far larger energy ties with the rest of the Gulf, a region critical to Beijing’s crude imports and overall trade.China’s two-way trade with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE stood at $107.5 billion and $101.8 billion, respectively, in 2024. By comparison, trade numbers with Iran pale at $42.4 billion, according to an annual report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). Closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also weighed on these trade flows as well.
Though Beijing described Tehran as “a trustworthy strategic partner,” China expert Sriparna Pathak believes Iran is more a source of leverage than a relationship rooted in loyalty for China. Pathak is a professor of China Studies and International Relations at OP Jindal Global University.
“China wants Iran stable enough to supply oil and not collapse, but not strong enough to drag Beijing into war,” she told CNBC-TV18. Tehran, on the other hand, is making sure not to be “sold out in US-China talks”.
“Beijing is giving words, not ironclad promises,” she added.
China has consistently purchased discounted Iranian oil and supplied dual-use goods, providing Tehran with a critical economic lifeline despite Western sanctions. However, it has stopped well short of the kind of backing that would materially shift the conflict’s trajectory or complicate the summit with Donald Trump scheduled for May 14-15 in Beijing.
That priority has a concrete expression. US President Donald Trump has publicly said that Xi Jinping took the unusual step of writing Trump a personal letter assuring him that China had no intention of sending new weapons to Tehran.
The Takshashila Institute’s Anushka Saxena argues Beijing has more important things to discuss with the US, even as it walks a tightrope without a definitive end to the war in West Asia.
“China’s tryst with Iran is its own to handle, and it is unlikely to be a central bone of contention with the US.”
“It is unlikely that Xi is going to let his meeting with Trump in Beijing get derailed by discussions on Iran. In fact, there is enough that pertains to sustaining technology trade and talent exchanges between China and the US, that will occupy the discussions at the Summit,” Saxena told CNBC-TV18.
The Beijing summit will be Trump’s first visit to China since 2017, though the two leaders met on the sidelines of APEC in Busan, South Korea in October 2025. That meeting yielded a fragile trade truce, bringing tariffs on Chinese goods down from a peak of over 140% to 47%. That truce remains incomplete. US goods trade with China fell to $414.7 billion in 2025, down nearly 30% from the year before.
The agenda this week spans unresolved tensions over semiconductors, rare earth export controls, electric vehicles, and AI – a full docket of bilateral grievances that have been building since Trump’s first term. Against that backdrop, analysts say, Iran is not an agenda item Beijing intends to dwell on.
Pathak also noted China has not done anything “game-changing” in the form of new military aid, bases, or escalation guarantees. “It will keep those channels open quietly while publicly pushing de-escalation. No combat role, no red lines drawn for Iran,” she said.
The US has taken note of Beijing’s “cautious approach,” though the Trump administration appears to see it as a move not to upset the rest of the Gulf nations, a USCC report published mid-March shows.
“Beijing has limited its official support for Iran after US and Israeli strikes to diplomatic statements characterising the actions as violations of international law, condemning the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and calling for immediate cessation of attacks and the reopening of dialogue,” the report states. That was before Wang Yi met with Araghchi, but China’s diplomatic position has not changed in any drastic way post the meeting.
The war has also handed Beijing an unplanned diplomatic dividend to position itself as a responsible power. Hosting the Iranian foreign minister, analysts noted, also allowed Beijing to cast itself as equals with the US.
The clearest signal of where Iran sits in Beijing’s priorities may come not from what Wang Yi said to Araghchi on Wednesday, but from what Xi and Trump discuss – or don’t – when they meet in Beijing this week.
