Is China About To Hand Nuclear Weapons To Iran?

Iran and the United States are engaged in talks, Washington hopes will lead to an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is on his way to China for meetings with Chinese officials. The Iranians say these are routine consultations with an ally.

Is there something more at play? Are the Chinese about to hand Tehran nuclear weapons?

Communist China has supported Iran with vital economic and technological support for years. It also has a history of aiding anti-Western states in developing nuclear weapons. Beginning in the 1970’s the Chinese were instrumental in building Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs. They provided Islamabad with key components for its atomic bomb, and the device itself was built based on Chinese blueprints. The Chinese also gave the Pakistanis the missiles they needed to be able to hit India with their new weapons. The Pakistanis, in turn, then provided crucial nuclear assistance to North Korea.

As Iran has moved steadily toward building its own nuclear weapon, China has offered crucial, direct assistance. The Chinese company, Zheijiang Ouhai Trade Corp., arranged the surreptitious transfer of "critical valves and vacuum gauges" to Iran for use in its uranium enrichment program. Another Chinese entity was involved in the sale to Iran of 108 pressure transducers, instruments that monitor gas centrifuges. Neither of these things could have happened without the direct approval and assistance of the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing knew when it provided this assistance that these items were only of use in the development of nuclear weapons.

In fact, in September 2005, the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported that China had secretly sent Iran beryllium the previous year. This metal, subject to international export controls, is used in neutron initiators to trigger nuclear weapons. It has no other utility. It is not even arguably part of a peaceful nuclear program. The Chinese provided Iran with the material it needed to set off an atomic bomb.

The Chinese have also made sure the Iranians have the missiles they need to deliver nuclear weapons. On missiles, there is no doubt where Tehran got its delivery systems. "Most of Iran's liquid-fueled ballistic missiles, including all its longest-range ones, are North Korean missiles with new paint," Bruce Bechtol, author of North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, told Gatestone.

In short, the Chinese made the strategic decision that they wanted Iran to have nuclear weapons a long time ago. They preferred that the Iranians develop the weapons themselves. That preference may have changed.

The negotiations between Iran and the United States are occurring at a particularly tense time. Trump has issued an ultimatum to the Iranians. They have about three weeks left before time runs out and they face “severe consequences”. The Chinese themselves are up against the existential threat of American sanctions. Chinese factories are shutting down. Their economy is in free fall.

Now, it might be exactly the time to hit back at Washington and radically alter the balance of power. Arming Iran with nuclear weapons would change the calculus entirely for Israel and the United States as they prepare for possible air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. It would also demonstrate to Trump Beijing’s ability to make him pay a steep price for his decision to confront Beijing economically and dare to contemplate cutting free of entanglement with a Communist regime.

Imagine for a moment the possibility that the Iranians test a nuclear weapon provided to them by the Chinese and simultaneously announce that they have an undetermined number of other functional devices, all already mated to ballistic missiles and drones and ready for use. The whole game would change overnight. Anyone talking about a preemptive strike against Tehran would have to be able to say with a straight face that the locations of all Iranian nuclear weapons were known with precision and that a first strike would be 100% effective in disarming the ayatollahs.

Realistically, no one could make such a claim. No one could be sure that Iranian nuclear weapons would not be fired in retaliation at Israel and at any other nation daring to support the strikes on Iran.

We have talked for many years about disarming Iran before it is too late. We may now have reached the point at which we must consider that it is already too late and the window of opportunity has closed. We pushed, but that action came far too late. Iran and China together may well be about to radically alter the state of play.

It comes down to this – a question to which we desperately need the answer. Is China about to hand nuclear weapons to Iran?