China’s behind-the-scenes role in diplomacy around the Iran war is drawing global attention as Beijing seeks to project itself as a responsible power while U.S. actions strain some of its long-standing alliances, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
The Associated Press report said China is not an official mediator in the conflict. But it said that all parties — including Washington and Tehran — describe China as having played an important role in attempts to de-escalate the fighting, including through efforts intended to bring Iran back to negotiations.
Diplomats told the Associated Press that Beijing, described as the biggest purchaser of sanctioned Iranian oil, used its leverage to urge the Iranians back to the negotiating table for face-to-face talks in Pakistan earlier this month. The report said Trump has publicly said he believes China encouraged Iran to negotiate a fragile ceasefire that he extended, while Beijing has not confirmed the account.
Experts said Beijing’s influence comes partly from the combination of economic and political ties, including the way the conflict affects global energy supply, especially in Asia. George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, told the Associated Press that China’s role is “irreplaceable,” saying its advice carries weight because it is Tehran’s biggest oil buyer and because it has shown sympathy for Iran’s situation at the United Nations.
The Associated Press report also described China’s diplomatic tempo around the war. It said the war began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, and that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with counterparts including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. As of mid-April, the report said Wang had made 30 phone calls about the war, based on a tally of his calls from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Pakistan is described in the report as acting as the main mediator in the latest talks, and it said Wang hosted Pakistan’s foreign minister to present a five-point proposal calling for an end to hostilities and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. In recent days, the report said, Xi Jinping has been uncharacteristically outspoken, warning last week against “the world’s retrogression to the law of the jungle.” The report said Xi this week called for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.
As China seeks to expand its role, experts told the Associated Press that its diplomatic efforts often remain carefully worded. They said Beijing tends to reiterate calls to respect the U.N. charter and national sovereignty, and that its messages in the Iran war have reflected that approach. The report said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University, said: “A lot of the points are remarkably consistent.”
The Associated Press report also pointed to China’s broader pattern of engagement in other conflicts. It said China helped broker renewed official engagement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023, a development widely seen as a geopolitical breakthrough. It also described China as hosting talks between Thailand and Cambodia during a separate conflict and taking part in initial ceasefire talks alongside the U.S. in Malaysia. It said Beijing also hosted the Ukrainian foreign minister amid proposals for the war in Ukraine even while maintaining what it calls a “no-limits” friendship with Russia.
In experts’ assessment, China’s mediation sometimes succeeds because it can offer incentives that other actors cannot, but it can also be cautious about the conditions under which it steps in. Tuvia Gering, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said China can offer economic incentives that matter to Tehran after the war ends, including investment and commercial relief. He also told the Associated Press that China could be “one of the few actors capable of giving Tehran both political cover and material incentives to accept constraints and stick to them.”
The report said that, even as Pakistan and key Arab Gulf states have played prominent roles in active mediation, China’s economic partnership with many of those countries gives Beijing leverage. It said another expert, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of international relations at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, described the U.S. approach to negotiating as harmful and said China was signaling global leadership by speaking to the rules-based international system. He told the Associated Press: “What the U.S. is doing is deeply damaging, and everyone suffers from it … and China is displaying global leadership and exerting its global role by speaking to the rules-based international system,” adding that it was “an inescapable contrast.”