US-Israel attacks on Iran: After the United States and Israel conducted airstrikes on Iran on Saturday and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the middle eastern country has vowed revenge and launched its own attacks on 27 US bases and some Israeli military facilities on Sunday, taking the conflict into its second day.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed Khamenei’s death on Sunday after US President Donald Trump made the big claim, even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing as “a great crime”.
It what it called “harsh step of revenge”, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), launched a series of strikes at the US bases and Israel’s Tel Nof airbase, army command headquarters at HaKirya in Tel Aviv, and a defense industrial complex in the capital city, state media said.
China eyes developments amid energy trade disruption
The conflict has affected flight services and closed trade through the Strait of Hormuz, impacted oil exports from the Gulf country. The narrow but critical waterway connects the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and sits between Iran and Oman’s Musandam exclave. It carries a significant share of the world’s energy supplies but is geographically vulnerable to military disruption.
The “chokepoint” strait handles some 20 million bpd of oil which accounts for nearly 20% of global consumption and 20% of the global liquid natural gas (LNG) trade. Over 80% of shipments through the strait go to Asian markets. Thus, here’s a look at why the US and Israel’s strikes on Iran, and subsequent retaliation from the Persian Gulf nation, are being tracked closely by China.
Iran-China trade: Beijing says ‘highly concerned’
According to an Al Jazeera report, China is one of the few big world economies that continues to engage in trade with Iran, despite US imposing sanctions on the oil rich country due to alleged nuclear capabilities.
China accounts for over 30% of Iranian trade, Bloomberg reported citing data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Beijing also buys 90% of Iranian oil exports, despite US sanctions.
In an official statement, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Saturday said the country is “highly concerned” about the conflict, and called for “immediate cessation of military operations, to avoid further escalation of tensions, to resume dialogue and negotiations, and to safeguard peace and stability in the Middle East”.
Notably, China has yet to issue another statement since confirmation of Khamenei’s death.
Why is China concerned over conflict in Iran?
The Al Jazeera report noted that China’s concern is not for Tehran, but rather that the situation could “spiral out of control” and lead to a longer war that disrupts the global energy market.
The Bloomberg report also noted that Iran-China trade heavily favours the latter, which can do without Iranian oil. What Beijing would find difficult to do without would be access to the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Further, the Al Jazeera report also added that if Iran is removed from the equation, China’s goal to counterbalance US hegemony loses a vital ally. Something Beijing and the Xi Jinping administration may not be too keen on.
China’s reliance on Iranian oil imports: Top FAQs
How much Iranian oil does China buy? According to a Reuters report citing data from analytics firm Kpler in January, the Asian giant acquires over 80% of all oil shipped from Iran, drawn to their discounted price. In 2025, independent refiners in China bought an average of China purchased on average 1.38 million bpd of Iranian oil — around 13.4% of the total 10.27 million bpd the country imported by sea, Kpler data showed.
Does China engage in trade despite US sanctions? Beijing has defended its oil trade with Iran as legitimate and rejects the US sanctions as unilateral. Such imports are usually labelled as originating from other transport hubs — Indonesia and Malaysia, as customs data shows no Iranian oil entering China since July 2022. Notably, China’s big state oil companies have stayed away from Iranian oil since 2018-19, the report added.
How much cheaper is Iranian oil? Reuters cited traders calculate that Iranian Light crude traded at around $8-$10 a barrel below ICE Brent on a delivered basis to China since December. This was a much steeper discount that the $6 below ICE Brent in September, they added.
(With inputs from Agencies)