The Chinese Communist Party proclaimed that it would “continue playing a constructive role” in peace in the Middle East following President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announcing a ceasefire on Wednesday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning claimed during her regular press briefing on Wednesday that China “has worked actively to help bring about an end to the conflict.” Through its state media arms, Beijing recalled that China, alongside the mediating government of Pakistan, recently published what it claimed was a “five-point initiative for restoring peace.” As that proposal included no concrete recommendations on how to end the conflict — it advised Iran and America to “immediately cease hostilities” and begin “peace talks” — no party to the dispute offered any material acknowledgment or applied the plan in any visible way.
The government of Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing’s, thanked China on Tuesday night following the ceasefire announcement. Pakistan has been serving as a mediator between Iran and America and is believed to be preparing to host peace talks to extend the ceasefire into a complete end to the conflict on Friday.
“As a responsible major country, China will continue playing a constructive role and making positive contribution to restoring peace and tranquility in the Gulf and Middle East region,” Mao said on Wednesday, according to a translation from the Chinese government.
“Since the fighting began, China has worked actively to help bring about an end to the conflict. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made 26 phones calls with his counterparts from relevant countries,” Mao asserted. The official refused to answer meaningfully when asked for details as to what China did to facilitate the ceasefire, outside of the phone calls and the “five-point initiative.”
“China always advocates resolving disputes through political and diplomatic channels and maintains communication with various parties regarding this,” she insisted. “We will continue working for easing tensions and bringing about a full stop of hostilities.”
China Daily, a Communist Party propaganda newspaper, published an article on Wednesday elevating China’s participation in remediating the fight.
“China’s approach has been to emphasize the cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue. Beijing’s diplomacy has been active and responsible,” the state newspaper claimed. “China’s foreign minister has made 26 phone calls with parties including Iran, Israel, Russia, and the Gulf states since the outbreak of the conflict, and its special envoy on the Middle East issue traveled to the region in intensive mediation efforts.”
President Trump announced a military operation to destroy Iran’s ability to pose a threat to its enemies on February 28, titled Operation Epic Fury. That day, he also announced that the operations, taken jointly with the nation of Israel, resulted in the elimination of “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Under the current Islamist regime, Iran is the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, actively funding a host of terrorist organizations around the world, including several active in the Western Hemisphere.
Rhetoric surrounding the conflict escalated dramatically this weekend when President Trump published several informal messages on his website, Truth Social, threatening to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure — and, later, its entire civilization — if what remains of the country’s leadership did not agree to a peace deal by 8 p.m. Tuesday Eastern time. Trump announced abruptly, along with Iran’s foreign minister, that such an agreement had been reached about an hour before the deadline.
China has been one of the countries most directly affected by the hostilities, as it has for years maintained its status as Iran’s largest oil buyer. As part of the conflict, Iran shut down commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for oil and other fossil fuels out of the region, prompting an oil panic in China, particularly Hong Kong.
The leftist New York Times newspaper, which has in the past published Maoist propaganda, reported on Wednesday that China made a “last-minute push” to pressure Iran into accepting a deal, paving the way for the expected negotiations with the United States this weekend.
“China asked Iran to show flexibility and defuse tensions,” the Times reported, citing anonymous Iranian officials.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not offer specific answers to the New York Times‘s reporting on the situation on Wednesday, but emphasized its desire to see an end to interruptions of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The root cause of the disruption at the Strait of Hormuz is the U.S.-Israel illegal military operations against Iran. The fundamental solution to ensuring safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz is to end the conflict as soon as possible,” Mao Ning asserted.
China has seen much of its clout in the Middle East erode in the past half-decade as a result of its close ties to Iran with its terrorist proxy network. Iran’s own influence has waned significantly in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, genocidal attacks by its proxy Hamas. The leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy terror group, have been eliminated in the aftermath of the attacks. In Syria, Iran’s puppet leader Bashar Assad was forced to flee the country in December 2024, leaving the al-Qaeda offshoot group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in charge of the country and, somewhat unexpectedly, bringing it closer to the Western geopolitical orbit and pushing it away from Iran, Russia, and China.
Following the announcement of Operation Epic Fury, Beijing immediately moved to portray a diplomatic role for itself in the situation, sending an envoy, Zhai Jun, to tour the Middle East and attempt to mediate. Zhai’s visits came and went with no meaningful impact on the situation.
China then published its “peace plan.” According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, the plan required: “Immediately ceasing hostilities, initiating peace talks as soon as possible, ensuring the safety of non-military targets, ensuring the safety of navigation, and safeguarding the primacy of the U.N. Charter.”