![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/16401372_f97f777d8878c5867caf59c64490169c-scaled-e1785996116184.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
China\u2019s reported sale of shoulder-launched missile systems to Iran should be concerning not just to the United States but also to Australia and other major powers in the Indo-Pacific. \u00a0It demonstrates a deeper strategic partnership between Beijing and Tehran \u2013 one with destabilising consequences for the Middle East \u2013 and shows a certain recklessness in Chinese behaviour.<\/p>\n
But China is not alone in this endeavour. Russia is an active party aiding Iran in a variety of ways, even though it has its hands full with its ill-advised invasion of Ukraine. Sino-Russian assistance to Iran degrades the international security situation in the Middle East and worsens the Strait of Hormuz crisis. And North Korea is involved too, completing the authoritarian axis.<\/p>\n
According to a 29 July Reuters report<\/a>, the China\u2013Iran weapons contract is for shoulder-fired missile systems \u2013 up to 400 QW-12 and FN-16 man-portable air defence systems \u2013under a deal worth between US$60 million and US$70 million (between A$85 million and A$99 million). The missile systems could help Iran rebuild short-range air defences, which have been severely degraded after five months of US\u2013Israeli military strikes.<\/p>\n To hide its role, China reportedly had a Hong Kong-based company, Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, act as a middle agent facilitating the deal with Iran. China\u2019s foreign ministry rejected the reports, saying<\/a> that they had \u2018no factual ground at all.\u2019 The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson also added that \u2018China always works for peace and the end of the conflict.\u2019 China\u2019s defence ministry spokesperson made a similar statement<\/a> saying that he was \u2018not familiar with the relevant situation.\u2019<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time reports about China\u2019s sale of missile systems have become public. In February, Reuters<\/a> reported that Iran and China were closing a deal for the sale of Chinese CM-302 supersonic anti-ship missiles. With a 290 km range, these were meant to boost Iran\u2019s strike capabilities against the US navy. In April, The New York Times<\/a>, citing US intelligence agencies, reported that China \u2018may have sent a shipment of shoulder-fired missiles to Iran.\u2019 However, this report was somewhat unclear, as \u2018the intelligence is not definitive that the shipment has been sent\u2019, nor was there clear evidence that Iran had used the missiles against the US. Nevertheless, these repeated reports show that China has enough stake in Iran to provide military supplies, despite the risks involved.<\/p>\n In May, the US Treasury Department<\/a> sanctioned<\/a> 12 Chinese entities and six individuals for providing assistance to Iran for its ballistic missile program. China was thought to be providing chemical precursors and other dual-use items that went to Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program.<\/p>\n Russia, too, has been arming Iran. In March, there were reports that detailed the scale of Moscow\u2019s assistance to Tehran. This included the provision of medicine, food, drones<\/a> and intelligence<\/a>, such as targeting information to help Iran hit the US assets in the Middle East. In September 2022, Iran supplied Shahed drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Now, Tehran is reportedly getting the more advanced versions of those drones from Moscow. The Financial Times<\/a> reports that the \u2018dramatically improved\u2019 version of the Shahed includes \u2018modifications to the engines, navigation and anti-jamming capabilities.\u2019 There are also indications that the newer Russian drones come with Chinese radio modems<\/a>, cameras<\/a> and a range of other improvements<\/a> that make them even more difficult to counter. In addition, and drawing from its own drone warfare experience in Ukraine, Russia was also reportedly providing<\/a> Iran with \u2018tactical guidance on how many drones should be used in operations and what altitudes they should strike from.\u2019<\/p>\n Completing the authoritarian axis, North Korea is reportedly gearing up to send around 30,000 troops to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said<\/a> on 30 July that Russia\u2019s Voronezh region was getting ready to receive the North Korean troops. He added that North Korea was also likely sending \u2018additional missile launchers\u2019 to further Russia\u2019s military operations in Ukraine. Zelenskyy also said<\/a> that the threat was not limited to Ukraine alone, as Russia was helping North Korea \u2018learn how to wage war, improve its weapons and gain real combat experience \u2060in using them.\u2019 This should be concerning to other countries in the Indo-Pacific, especially Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n Chinese and Russian assistance to Iran could have serious effects on Middle Eastern security dynamics, including potentially prolonging the war in Iran. Australia and other Indo-Pacific powers should be alert to deepening cooperation between authoritarian powers. These powers are already working together in Ukraine. Now they are in Iran, again trying to undermine the US and its partners. Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific targets could be next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s reported sale of shoulder-launched missile systems to Iran should be concerning not just to the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1134813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[62633,1395,2000,299,774,6660,332,657],"class_list":["post-1134812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-authoritarianism","tag-china","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-iran","tag-north-korea","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117051341692761288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1134813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}