The “economic onslaught” that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared on Iran’s financial connections around the world may have one major caveat, says China.
Bessent announced on Monday (August 24), Beijing said its cooperation with Iran has always been “within the framework of international law. China receives more than 80% of Iranian oil shipments but usually through indirect channels.
In response to “Operation Economic Outcast,” which Mr.
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Centre, a Washington think tank, said China will not go along with the new campaign if the U.S. goal is to destroy the Iranian economy and seek the government’s collapse.
He repeated China’s opposition to “illegal unilateral sanctions. Mr.
Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China-Iran cooperation “should not be disrupted or undermined. “China is closely monitoring relevant developments and will take all necessary measures to safeguard its own rights and interests resolutely,” Mr. Lin said. Kagan described Beijing’s remarks as “a holding response” and said Beijing will try to do the least to comply without openly confronting the U.S..
Kagan, who served as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia from December 2023 until this February. Beijing is Iran’s biggest trading partner and its leading oil buyer. President Donald Trump is also preparing to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month to maintain a fragile trade truce While the U.S. is trying to isolate the Islamic Republic from its remaining economic partners. Absent from Mr. Bessent’s remarks this week were specifics about how the Trump administration would target China, casting doubts on how effective the new campaign would be when the U.S. must balance putting maximum pressure on Iran and avoiding higher tensions with China that could be costly to the American economy. “For Mr. Xi, a state visit to Washington is a big deal; and for Mr. Trump, hosting it is a big deal.
“The announcement yesterday was very careful in my view to avoid specifics [against China], which could have led to a disruption in the summit,” Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and Freeman Chair in China studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said on Tuesday (August 26, 2026). That means both Washington and Beijing will have a dance to do, said Mr. “I think the real question is, is there room to push [the Chinese] to reduce what they’re doing with Iran, to put more pressure on the Iranian regime in a way that doesn’t lead them to say, ‘This is unreasonable, and we’re not going to comply,’” he said.
