Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during their meeting in Beijing on May 6, 2026. The two spoke by telephone on June 17.
According to press reports, Wang Yi insisted on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, a top strategic priority for Beijing and endorsed the demands “légitimes» of Iran (lifting of sanctions, right to civilian nuclear energy, sovereignty and non-interference). For Araghchi, the number one concern was, in addition to stopping the bombings, the cessation of Israeli operations in Lebanon.
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At the time when in Versailles, in the absence of Iranian President Massoud Pezechkian who, for his part, validated the remote approach, Donald Trump, self-satisfied to the limit of burlesque, seduced by the splendor and the symbol of power of the Palace of Versailles, signed a strange 14-point framework agreement not yet negotiated;
While observers discussed the triumph of the Pasdaran capable of resisting military destruction; On the multifaceted skill of China praised by the American President for its neutrality, against the most elementary evidence;
On the strategic downgrading of the United States in the Middle East, facing its Arab allies in the Gulf now skeptical of Washington’s protection, on June 20, Place Vauban in Paris, a cruel reality was reminded to the most cynical who summarized the crisis solely in consequences of the disruption of flows in the Strait of Hormuz.
Maryam Rajavi, with a political past fiercely opposed to the Shah and the Mullahs who persecuted her family, wife of the opponent Massoud Rajavi who has disappeared since 2003 and President of the “People’s Mojahedin” movement (1) was at the head of a demonstration of several thousand people who denounced the continuation of capital executions in Iran.
On the occasion, the message from the movement’s spokesperson in France, Hamid Hasadolahi, denounced “one of the most serious waves of political executions in recent years “. More generally, Maryam Rajavi stigmatizes the systematic massacre of political opponents since 1988, the bloody repression of popular uprisings and the executions by hanging of activists captured by the police.
After the major protest movements in 2009, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and those of “Woman, Life, Liberty” born after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, nor even after the massacres of several thousand demonstrations in the streets of Tehran and major Iranian cities on January 8 and 9, 2026, the repression by summary executions did not stop. According to the UN, at the end of April 2026, Tehran had executed 21 demonstrators by hanging.
Alongside the Iranian people who have lost and profited from Donald Trump’s transactions, the other actors caught on the wrong side of the White House’s about-face are the Israelis. For the moment Tel Aviv is worried that omissions or postponement of American demands on Iranian military nuclear power or ballistic missiles will ultimately weaken Israel’s security.
Beijing, comfortable in the smoke bombs maintained by Trump, reaps a long series of benefits without any particular effort.
Just after Trump signed at Versailles, Lin Jian, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared “At this critical juncture, relevant parties, including Israel, must join the general trend toward peace and stability in the region ”.
For Hridray Sarma, analyst at the National Security Institute, India’s first strategic research center in New Delhi, “the spokesperson’s remarks underlined the Chinese strategic priority: [Pour la Chine] more than putting an end to the regional armed conflict, the American-Iranian agreement made it possible to restore global energy flows. »
If it is true that Chinese energy foresight has accumulated significant hydrocarbon reserves and that in all hypotheses, in the event of a global shortage, it is counting on the abundance of its coal mines, (Read: https://www.questionchine.net/le-defi-chinois-de-l-energie-une-strategie-a-long-terme-la-remanence-du-charbon-et-l), the fact remains that Beijing was shocked by the brutality with which the flows from the Strait of Hormuz were interrupted.
Oil tanker traffic has slowed, insurance premiums have soared and freight costs have climbed, creating high volatility in oil markets, threatening to cause a new wave of global inflation.
The repercussions were felt well beyond the Gulf, increasing pressure on central banks already struggling to restore price stability.
No region had as much to lose as Asia. China, India, Japan and South Korea rely heavily on Gulf crude oil and Qatari LNG to operate their manufacturing, transportation and power generation.
In 2025, nearly 50% of Chinese crude oil imports will pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Highlighting Beijing’s vulnerability to disruptions, the density of flows explains the spokesperson’s relief; his insistence that the agreement be respected and that no one comes to disrupt it, especially not Tel Aviv, engaged in Lebanon against the threat of Hezbollah missiles which, despite the agreements of June 19, 2026, have not stopped hitting northern Israel.
However, the main Chinese profit is elsewhere. It touches on China’s very posture in the global strategic concert. When on February 28, Washington and Tel Aviv launched their joint strikes against Iran, in Beijing the specter arose that after Venezuela, another ally of China could be beheaded.
Barely four months later, the tide turned: the United States and Iran reached an interim agreement after weeks of peace negotiations; The Tehran regime is still in place, while for most observers the war has highlighted the limits of American military power, which Beijing is delighted with.
Strategic skill in the service of an overall image of appeasement.
In the chaos of the war in Iran and despite its proximity to the fiercely repressive regime in Tehran which threatens Israel with destruction, Beijing has, thanks to its diplomatic skill, managed to present itself as a credible actor of appeasement in the face of Washington’s warlike brutality.
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At the same time, while Beijing was content to make declarations calling for peace and several Western leaders followed one another in the Chinese capital, its diplomatic influence was strengthened. Even Donald Trump praised Beijing for its neutrality in the conflict, even though reality showed the opposite.
« I would like to thank China, President Xi remained neutral! Totally neutral, and I appreciate it Â,” Trump said at a G7 press conference in France on June 17. In passing, he stressed that the Chinese had not used their naval power to circumvent the American blockade of Iranian ports. “They didn’t do it. President Xi helped me. He tried to help me, and I think he probably helped solve the problem  »
But the discourse on Chinese neutrality clashes head-on with the reality of the 25-year strategic partnership agreement signed between China and Iran in 2021, which includes profound aspects
technological and security.
It is true that China did not directly participate in the conflict and refrained from providing visible aid to Tehran. But it is wrong to say that she remained neutral. Chinese missiles fired at American and Arab bases in the Persian Gulf used guidance from the Chinese BeiDou system to circumvent Israeli jamming of American GPS.
Lire https://www.questionchine.net/pekin-face-a-l-embrasement-du-moyen-orient-avec-moscou-et-teheran-une-coagulation & https://www.questionchine.net/chine-iran-contre-l-occident-l-alliance-de-l-agnostique-et-du-martyr
Furthermore, Beijing denies this, but the American government maintains that Chinese companies have supported Tehran’s efforts to obtain weapons. It remains that overall, despite its stated strategic penchant for Tehran, Chinese skill will have been to maintain dialogue with all parties while continuing to buy Iranian oil.
While he verbally supported Tehran, the Waijiaobu still showed restraint in his criticism of the United States for having started the conflict, while increasing exchanges and meetings with the Gulf countries targeted by Iranian attacks.
In the chaos, China never wavered from its prudence. His attitude has been to preserve his interests rather than play a leading role in resolving the conflict or taking sides too openly.
Note.
1.- The movement which was until 2009 and 2012 classified as a terrorist organization by Paris and Washington for its proximity to Saddam Hussein against the Kurds and its attacks against American interests and Iranian embassies, made its political transformation in 2009, the year in which it renounced armed struggle and attacks.
Today, he advocates a non-nuclear Iran, the establishment of a pluralist and secular republic, the abolition of the death penalty and Sharia law, and, notably rejecting the compulsory wearing of the veil, total equality between men and women.
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