How Israel’s attack on Iran has sent a shockwave miles away in Beijing and why China may not stay silent

Israel’s strike on Iran’s nuclear sites and the South Pars gas hub has not only shaken Tehran but has also rattled Beijing, foreign‑policy expert Gordon Chang told Fox Business. Chang warned that the blow to Iran—China’s main Middle‑East partner—could trigger fresh proxy attacks on the United States. The raid threatens China’s long‑term, US $400 billion economic pact with Iran and may upset Beijing’s wider influence strategy in the Gulf. Any escalation could pull global energy supplies and shipping lanes into a deeper conflict, the expert said.

Beijing’s biggest regional bet at risk

In 2021 China pledged to pour US $400 billion into Iranian banks, ports, railways, telecom and health care over 25 years. In return, Iran agreed to ship Beijing heavily discounted crude, according to an Iranian official and an oil trader cited by The New York Times. Chang argued that the partnership has turned Iran into China’s “proxy in the Middle East,” and the latest Israeli strike could “mean that nothing is off the table to China and its military advances.”

Analyst sees proxies preparing payback

China buys more than 90 per cent of Iran’s exported oil and supplies chips and other parts for Tehran’s weapons, Chang said. He added that Iranian‑backed forces—Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza—all “use large amounts of made in China weapons.” If Iran cannot respond directly to Israel, Chang believes Beijing will “get either Iran or some other proxy to strike the US.”

Washington issues sharp warning to Iran

According to multiple media reports the US had ordered some it personnel to move out of the region before the Israeli strikes fearing a retaliatory attack by Iran on some of its bases in the Middle East.

Posting on Truth Social, the US President told Tehran that failure to revive nuclear talks could invite even harsher Israeli action. He wrote, “ There has been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter….come to an end.”

Military analysts now watch for signs of proxy retaliation in the Red Sea, Iraq or Syria—flashpoints where Iranian allies already operate. Energy traders meanwhile brace for possible supply shocks if tensions spill into the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

(With inputs from TOI)