Iran provides the Houthis with weapons and training. Chinese firms provide dual-use goods, i.e., goods that can serve both military and civilian purposes. “But the Chinese goods are particularly critical for the militant group’s drone technology,” says The Wall Street Journal (September 23, 2026).
Once a marginal supplier of the Yemeni rebels, Chinese companies are now the biggest source of seized goods bound for the Houthis, according to U.N. reports and data gathered by arms experts. Most of the Houthis’ U.S.-sanctioned drone parts suppliers are based in China, the data shows….
That component supply has taken on new importance after the Houthis began an offensive seizing territory along the Red Sea coast and attacking Saudi Arabia as it tries to export oil there as the Strait of Hormuz remains contested. The rebels’ history of striking ships—they struck more than 100 during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip—has seen traffic in the Red Sea plummet.
“Iran made the Houthis but China powered it,” said Mohammed al-Basha, founder of Basha Report, a Washington-based risk-advisory firm. “Now, they are the trolls of global commerce.”…
Experts who spoke to The Wall Street Journal attributed much of the Houthis’ technological upgrades to Chinese goods. In late August, the National Resistance Forces, an anti-Houthi faction in Yemen, seized cargo from a ship bound for the rebels that included military-grade wireless data radios manufactured in Chengdu, China, which can be used for commanding drones….
About 65% of the entities sanctioned by the U.S. for selling drones or their components to the Houthis were based in China, with the rest being Iranian, said Salisbury, a fellow at Century International, a U.S.-based policy research center….
A U.N. panel on Yemen reported last October that nine seized Houthi drones and their components in the previous 15 months had come from China—the bulk of the hauls. Seizures last year included China-made drone engines used by the Houthis as early as 2019 against Saudi oil facilities and 800 drone propellers seized in March 2025 at Yemen’s border with Oman.
A container seized in November 2024, sent by a Yemeni shipper in China and officially declared as school supplies, hid devices designed to track vessels and tap their communications.
In addition to drone parts and tracking devices, the Houthis have gotten satellite imagery from the Chinese.
“In 2025,” James Roth notes in a column for this site, “the U.S. State Department said that the U.S. could ‘confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company Limited is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on U.S. interests.’ Chang Guang supplied (still supplies?) the Houthis with imagery of U.S. and international targets. The firm has connections with the People’s Liberation Army.”
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “How Red China Helps the Houthis”
