ABSTRACT
Political relations between Iran and China are always subject to various considerations that economic issues and the type of policies and stances of the two sides on international and regional issues play a significant role in the relations.
The outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran was accompanied by a transformative development in China led by Deng Xiaoping. The symmetry of these two developments brought the relations between the two countries into an era of new nature. Iran's foreign policy changed and it was on the path to revolutionism, with the slogan “Neither Eastern nor Western.” On the other hand, in China in December 1978, at the third session of the 11th. Congress of the Communist Party, the country's macro-strategy changed from revolutionism to expansionism. Symbolically, Iran and China changed their place in international politics.
Military and strategic relations between Iran and China expanded after the Islamic Revolution and especially after the beginning of the Iraq war against Iran. On the one hand, Iran, which has been the target of Iraq's aggression policy with the support of some regional and trans-regional powers and faced arms restrictions, considers China as a source of weapons and war supplies, at the same time, China, as a country opposed to regional hegemony by the United States and its allies in various regions, including the Persian Gulf, was in harmony with Iran.
Estimating and evaluating the bilateral relations of countries in the foreseeable future requires paying attention to the power resources of the two countries, their ability to stimulate them, as well as the contextualising of the opportunities and challenges. According to the above, there are necessities on the political and economic calculations of Iran and China, which leads them closer to the continuation of the proceeds. In this regard, mental and administrative history of both sides has a decisive role. This means that the benefits and revenues that Iran and China have gained from bilateral relations in the political and security economic spheres have led to their positive approach to each other and therefore encourages the two sides to expand them while preserving these achievements.
Cooperation between Iran and China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in the framework of the transportation sector, has been discussedsince 2018, with the visit of Ali Larijani, the speaker of parliament, to China, and studies have been conducted by the Parliamentary Research Center. In this regard, two points should be considered. First, the initiative has two sections: the “21st Maritime Silk Road” and “Silk Road Economic Belt,” which has six land corridors.
In the Belt and Road Initiative, Iran can make extensive cooperation in parts of this initiative within the framework of the “25 Year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" that has been signed with China. But Iran shouldn't become a transit country for China, because, as stated above, it's not entirely clear to Iran how profitable transit is for the national economy.
