Nothing more to have news of the death of Qasem Soleimani, the minister of foreign affairs, chinese Wang Yi accused bluntly to EE. UU. of “violating the basic principles of international relations”; however, immediately afterwards, the spokesperson of the same Ministry was more lukewarm, suggesting moderation to the parties to avoid an escalation to uncontrollable stress.
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speaking at length of the “tuning strategic” between China and Iran, an observer country in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, especially following the visit to Tehran of chinese president Xi Jinping (in 2016), which allowed to agree on dollar investments for the hydrocarbons and infrastructures. But what is certain is that little has come of all of this, and following the decision of Trump to remove EE. UU. the nuclear deal, far from increasing the projection of china in Iran, this has done nothing but undermine. This is evident in the fall of oil exports, which in a first moment, increased, or bilateral trade, but also in the backward step since on committed investment by companies as significant as the oil companies CNPC, or Sinopec group or the automobile manufacturer Lifan.
After the lessons learned in countries such as Iraq or Libya, also Venezuela to other scale, the wisdom prevails in the proceeding chinese. In this case, to balance the outrage with the offset in the rivalry between Tehran and Washington is key to his diplomacy. For most that join forces to naval exercises as those conducted with Russia and Iran in the Gulf of Oman to the end of December, China will advocate for moderation. Beijing looks forward to continuing to develop its ties and trade with Tehran, which considers important in its foreign policy, but wants to do so without this will result in a deepening of disputes with EE. UU. and less to the doors of the signing of a fragile truce in the trade war. The classical pragmatism of chinese has as its epicentre the relationship with EE. UU. and around it, will modulate any other dispute. Your urgent needs and priorities do not pass through Tehran, but to appease the tensions with Washington.
similarly, to think that encouraging a war between the. UU. and Iran serves its interests as much as it can involve wear for Washington in addition to the convenient neglect of the Indo-Pacific region, overlooked that would suffer equally the damage of a crisis of such proportions. Six of their top ten suppliers of oil lie in the area. What China needs is calm on the outside to continue working successfully with your internal transformation, in which it still has many holes to plug. To greatest, what their interests are, and a lot of, is to explore the impact of the proceed of EE. UU. in the deepening of the gap that separates Washington and Brussels in the approach of the nuclear problem.
Xulio Ríos is the director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics
