Iran in new ...
Page 1
China’s perspective on Iran is different. For Beijing, Iran is more of a geopolitical and economic opportunity. Its vast energy reserves, transit location, and position along the route connecting East Asia to the Middle East and Europe give it special importance to China. Moreover, Iran’s remaining outside the US orbit indirectly benefits China by absorbing some of America’s focus and resources in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, the China-Iran relationship should not be seen as a full-fledged strategic or ideological alliance. China is fundamentally pragmatic: it maintains broad economic cooperation not only with Iran but also with Tehran’s regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia and even Israel. Beijing does not wish to enter into a direct confrontation with the US over Iran, as China’s economy remains dependent on Western markets.
This is where Barry Buzan’s concept of a “new Cold War” becomes relevant. Buzan argues that US-China relations are acquiring some features of the Cold War—structural rivalry between two great powers, the formation of nascent blocs, and a competition over the future of the global order. But he emphasizes that this is not a full replay of the US-Soviet Cold War.
The most important difference is the two powers’ economic interdependence. The US and Soviet Union operated largely separate economies, but China and the US are deeply enmeshed in the global economy. Moreover, today’s world is not strictly bipolar; many countries are trying to balance between the two powers. And the main arena of competition is less military or nuclear than it is economic, technological, and geo-economic.
Thus, when Buzan speaks of a “new Cold War,” he does not mean a return to the 20th-century model. Instead, he points to the emergence of a long-term, structural rivalry between China and the US over the shape of the future global order—a rivalry in which Iran, as a key regional player, is very much a part.