China supplied Iran’s nuclear and missile programs despite Western opposition

Evidence

By the 1990s the weapons connections between China and Iran also had become intensive. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, China supplied Iran with 22 percent of its arms and in 1989 became its single largest arms supplier. China also actively collaborated in Iran’s openly declared efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. After signing “an initial Sino-Iranian cooperation agreement,” the two countries then agreed in January 1990 to a ten-year understanding on scientific cooperation and military technology transfers. In September 1992 President Rafsanjani accompanied by Iranian nuclear experts visited Pakistan and then went on to China where he signed another agreement for nuclear cooperation, and in February 1993 China agreed to build two 300-MW nuclear reactors in Iran. In keeping with these agreements, China transferred nuclear technology and information to Iran, trained Iranian scientists and engineers, and provided Iran with a calutron enriching device. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 504

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader realist/civilizational theme of states arming other states to balance against Western power — relates to the law-merchant private-institution material only loosely, but resonates with how great powers use third parties to evade scrutiny. — connects to: Obama’s defense strategy pivoted to containing China and Iran through regional allies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 434