Epoch Times - Why the Iran War Is All About China

March 5, 2026 - Epoch Times

02:07

Why the Iran War Is All About China | Zineb Riboua

Zineb Riboua reveals how China’s 2020+ arms and surveillance push—supplying Iran with missile chemicals, tracking tech, and UAE-style 5G dominance—transforms Tehran into a Beijing proxy, using protest crackdowns to test Uyghur-style monitoring. This isn’t just trade; it’s a geopolitical chess move where China weaponizes petrochemical gaps and telecom control to outmaneuver U.S. influence in the Gulf. [Automatically generated summary]
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China's Role in Iran's Arsenal 00:02:07
	He says that it's really, you know, Israel is at war with Iran, but it's the U.S., this war, this is the U.S. being actually at war with China.
	In a sense, I would say so.
	Because it is China that has helped Iran acquire different components.
	Their fingerprints are all over Iran's military arsenal.
	When it comes to the missiles, I did some numbers and it's been basically the Chinese helping Iran get a lot of the chemicals, components that are very crucial for that arsenal.
	Iran does not have really the domestic capacity to produce those chemicals because of the orientation of its industry, very heavy on petrochemicals.
	And also they don't have the skills and mastery of it.
	And so the Chinese really just stepped in and they helped.
	And there's one thing that I thought was very interesting and I've been looking at that since, I would say, since 2020, and it's the Chinese eagerness to export its surveillance model, its technology model.
	There were already a lot of scandals about Chinese 5G in Gulf countries.
	For example, how the UAE chose 5G over American weaponry, but American jet fighters.
	But this also applies to Iran.
	If one looks at it, China has helped Iran's whole telecommunications architecture.
	They have reshaped it exactly as they would do in Beijing.
	A lot of those crackdowns that happened in January against the protesters, they happened in such a brutality because Iran was able to use Chinese technology that was absolutely sophisticated but also made in a way that they could track very easily who wears a hijab or not, who is doing this or that, because they perfected it in Uyghur camps.

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China's Role in Iran's Arsenal 00:02:07

He says that it's really, you know, Israel is at war with Iran, but it's the U.S., this war, this is the U.S. being actually at war with China.

In a sense, I would say so.

Because it is China that has helped Iran acquire different components.

Their fingerprints are all over Iran's military arsenal.

When it comes to the missiles, I did some numbers and it's been basically the Chinese helping Iran get a lot of the chemicals, components that are very crucial for that arsenal.

Iran does not have really the domestic capacity to produce those chemicals because of the orientation of its industry, very heavy on petrochemicals.

And also they don't have the skills and mastery of it.

And so the Chinese really just stepped in and they helped.

And there's one thing that I thought was very interesting and I've been looking at that since, I would say, since 2020, and it's the Chinese eagerness to export its surveillance model, its technology model.

There were already a lot of scandals about Chinese 5G in Gulf countries.

For example, how the UAE chose 5G over American weaponry, but American jet fighters.

But this also applies to Iran.

If one looks at it, China has helped Iran's whole telecommunications architecture.

They have reshaped it exactly as they would do in Beijing.

A lot of those crackdowns that happened in January against the protesters, they happened in such a brutality because Iran was able to use Chinese technology that was absolutely sophisticated but also made in a way that they could track very easily who wears a hijab or not, who is doing this or that, because they perfected it in Uyghur camps.