James Kynge

And crucially, at no point has China ever offered military support to Iran, either in terms of money or technology or combat reinforcement.

So China's remained aloof in that really important sense.

And lastly, China's going ahead with the delayed summit with President Trump that is now on again for May.

And that's hardly the action of a country that would be really annoyed with the U.S.

or wanting to score points against the U.S.

or harshly criticize the U.S.

So

I think what we can see through all of these is China focusing on its own interests, mainly economic interests, focusing on keeping its focus and discipline on the countries that surround it, where China's destiny really can be made or lost.

And lastly, maintaining a transactional view of its relationship with the rest of the world.

In other words, getting what it needs and not pledging too much and not getting bogged down in any kind of military adventures anywhere in the world.

Would you agree with that, Alice, or do you have a different take on this?

Absolutely, Alex.

And before I answer that, let me just say that I think you're dead right to point out that there could be things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about.

You mentioned missile technology.

We don't have any evidence that China is helping Iran in any regard like that at the

then I think we would be in different territory here.

For the moment, we assume it's not happening.

But anyway, Russia versus Iran, I think this very much falls into the kind of category that I mentioned in terms of periphery diplomacy, which is obviously China's core criteria.

Russia and China have a border of several thousand miles.

So that makes Russia much more important to China than Iran.