China urged restraint and called for an immediate ceasefire over the US and Israeli assault on Iran — but analysts noted Beijing’s limited options to exert control over a region in which it has huge, strategic interests. The statement from China’s foreign ministry came after the country’s state news agency called the strikes against Iran a “brazen aggession” as well as “power politics and hegemony.”
Yet while Beijing made waves by finalizing a diplomatic rapprochement between regional heavyweights Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023, it does ot have military assets in the Middle East, nor does it retain other levers to exert hard power in a manner similar to the US. The relative quiet from China mirrors its lack of options when the US unseated Venezuela’s leader in January; at the time, “the prevailing mood [among Chinese experts] was one of resignation.” Indeed, since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, “China has largely taken a backseat in the region,” a Chatham House expert wrote.