“We urge all parties to take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at an early date,” Wang Yi, the Chinese minister of foreign affairs, told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on September 16. Araghchi was in Beijing to receive the advice.
“Everybody, chill out,” has been the CCP’s refrain since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Beijing is inconvenienced by the war but is also helping Iran to wage it.
Doings
President Trump has both denied and downplayed China’s assistance to Iran. Downplaying is the current stance. All differences between the U.S. government and the totalitarian and relentlessly aggressive Chinese government are being reduced do “they do what we do” (Reuters, September 14, 2026).
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday brushed aside a report that Iran acquired satellite images of a base in Jordan from Chinese entities before an attack that killed three U.S. troops there in July.
A recent report in the Wall Street Journal cited unnamed U.S. officials about the attack in Jordan. Asked whether he would mention the issue at an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump did not directly answer, and instead equated the surveillance activities of China and the United States.
“They basically do what we do,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “When they say China spies on us, I say you’re right and we spy on them too.”…
“I think [Xi Jinping has] behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well,” Trump said as he flew back to the United States after a weekend trip to Ireland.
This nonsensical claim, intended to assure listeners that the threat of China is no biggie while also protecting the tender sensibilities of Xi Jinping, could be made with equal plausibility about the Iranians, Hamas, the Houthis—all the proxies or client states or terrorists on the same team as the People’s Republic of China.
Reuters says, “Trump’s comments appeared consistent with the administration’s recent efforts to play down wide-ranging tensions between Washington and Beijing, despite U.S. frustration over Beijing’s close ties to Tehran.”
In July of this year, Reuters reported: “Trump says he trusts Russia and China’s leaders not to enable Iran…. ‘I don’t know that they’re enabling [Iran],’ Trump said. ‘I think I trust them.’ ” Meanwhile, his secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, was telling the U.S. Senate, “There are ways in which both of those countries are, at different levels, enabling some of the things Iran is doing, yes.”
Images
On September 11, 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that according to U.S. officials, “Tehran acquired high-resolution satellite images of the base in Jordan from Chinese entities” prior to an attack on the base that killed three American soldiers. “The imagery is part of a broader flow of Chinese technology and data used by Iran, including navigation services, and components used in drones and missiles.”
The Journal says that the U.S. officials “didn’t allege direct involvement by Beijing” in providing the imagery, meaningless circumspection given the fact that CCP officials have intimated and do intimate that such sharing of satellite images is fine with them.
This report notes that a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Chang, in the same breath objected to “malicious linking and smearing of other countries” and asserted that China’s cooperation with Iran is consistent with international law, a nondenial denial.
Several months ago, in a May 11, 2026 press conference, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun was asked about the U.S. State Department’s sanctioning of China-based satellite companies “for enabling Iran’s military operations, including providing imagery assisting Iran strikes against the U.S.” His response: “China firmly opposes illicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or the authorization of the UN Security Council. The Chinese government always asks Chinese companies to operate in accordance with laws and regulations. We will firmly protect Chinese businesses’ legitimate rights and interests.”
Summits
Today, as a September 24 meeting with Xi approaches, President Trump has been telling his team “that it is a priority for him to maintain good relations with China and Xi in particular,” according to the Journal. “Publicly, senior Trump administration officials have played down the impact of any Chinese assistance to Iran.”
It seems that to keep getting the kid-glove treatment, Beijing must make sure that another summit between Xi and Trump is always coming up.
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “How Red China Helps the Houthis”
