“It is also clear from their words that Chinese analysts struggle reconciling this crisis with the general and well-established narrative of U.S. decline in the Middle East and the parallel rise of China and other non-Western powers. Their assessment of the limitations of regional actors, Russia and Europe is not surprising. As to China’s role, there appears to be an underlying frustration, likely shared by Chinese officials and experts: Iran is an important partner but there is little that China can seriously do to help or assist Tehran.”
Miriam Verzellino and Andrea Ghiselli (ChinaMed, T.wai) are authors of the issue “Diminishing U.S. influence? Chinese official positions and expert debate on the Israel-Iran conflict” of the ChinaMed Observer.
