Background: Why China-Iran Relations Are a Lot More Complicated Than They Appear

Bill Figueroa is a research associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on China-Iran relations. The analysis below is copied from a 12-part thread that he published on Twitter and has been lightly edited for clarity.

In March of 2020, Iran and China signed the fabled “Iran-China Deal”, in which China reported pledged massive cooperation with and investment in Iran over the next two-and-a-half decades. The deal ostensibly called for $400 billion in investment.

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by Cobus van Staden

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