President Trump on Saturday warned China not to provide weapons to its strategic partner Iran.
“Well, if China does that China is going to have big problems,” Mr. Trump said in response to a reporter’s question as he departed the White House for a visit to Miami.
China is suspected of supplying Iran with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles for its war with the United States, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing U.S. intelligence officials.
The report was based on unverified intelligence information that the shipment was to be sent, and there is no information that Chinese missiles were used against U.S. or Israeli forces, the report said.
Mr. Trump delayed a visit to Beijing in April because of the Iran conflict.
The announcement Sunday that the United States will impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz could further delay the president’s visit, now set for mid-May.
China remains reliant on Middle East oil that passes through the strait.
China supplied Iran with a variety of weapons before the conflict, including air defense systems that proved less than reliable for Iran’s military.
Relations between Beijing and Tehran were strengthened under a 2021 comprehensive strategic partnership.
Since the 1990s, the United States has pressed China not to supply arms to Iran after U.S. intelligence agencies discovered that the Chinese military sold supersonic C-802 anti-ship missiles to Iran.
China was close to selling the Iranians more advanced CM-302 supersonic anti-ship missiles that are capable of defeating naval defenses before the start of U.S. and Israeli attacks. It is not known if those missiles were supplied.
Chinese HQ-9B long-range surface-to-air missile batteries also were ineffective as one element of a nationwide Iranian integrated air defense that included indigenous systems and Russian air defenses. U.S. and Israeli airstrikes rapidly degraded the Iranian air defenses in the opening days of the conflict.
In addition to new anti-aircraft missiles, China reportedly is supplying Iran with precursor chemicals for its rocket and missile systems.
Chinese state-owned vessels were suspected in early March of carrying sodium perchlorate, a key precursor for solid rocket fuel.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing is not supplying any arms to Iran.
The spokesman told CNN, which also reported the impending shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile shipment, that China “has never provided weapons to any party to the conflict” and called the allegations untrue.
China has largely framed its support as commercial or civilian in nature, but Western officials and analysts view it as a deliberate effort to sustain Iran’s military capacity and counter U.S. influence in the Middle East.
