China Touts Weapons Capabilities As Iran's Defenses Collapse
The collapse of Iran's air defenses in the face of Israeli attacks has prompted influential Chinese commentators to say it could have fared better if it had been supplied with Chinese weaponry.
Chinese fighter aircraft proved themselves in combat for Pakistan during its recent confrontation with India, with Pakistani forces claiming to have shot down Indian jets.
"Iran's biggest mistake was not purchasing weapons from China," wrote "Former HR himself," a Weibo account with two million followers.
Newsweek reached out to the Iranian and Chinese foreign ministeries by email with requests for comment.
The Chinese comments on the failure of Iran's air defenses, which were largely dependent on Russian systems, highlight the increasing prominence of the latest Chinese weapons technology and China's desire to secure new markets for it.
The apparent success of Chinese air power in the confrontation between India and Pakistan had already elevated its profile, with stocks in Chinese defense company AVIC Shenyang soaring by 10 percent on last week's news that Pakistan planned to acquire 40 of its J-35 fighters.
Countries unable to acquire advanced fighter jets from the U.S. are increasingly turning to China as an alternative supplier, as Beijing positions itself as a viable competitor by ramping up exports and strategic partnerships, as well as showcasing its aircraft in military drills.
China Central Television program Defense Review said that netizens from several Muslim-majority countries had called on their governments to introduce the Chinese J-35 fighter jet immediately after seeing what had happened in Iran.
These calls-from nationals of Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Algeria, and others-illustrated a growing desire to strengthen security partnerships with China as a way to counter U.S.-built hardware, such as the F-35s flown by Israel, the report said.
This narrative was also taken up by Hu Xijin, the outspoken former editor of the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times, who has nearly 25 million followers on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.
"If Iran had several dozen J-10s, plus a Hongqi series missile air defense system, and with Pakistan's level of air defense, it would probably not be as easily struck by Israel like this," Hu wrote in the now-deleted post. The J-10 is an older generation fighter than the J-35.
Once heavily reliant on Russian imports, China has transitioned to developing its own advanced aircraft-demonstrating growing self-sufficiency and competitiveness that may surpass Russia, experts say.
A recent analysis report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reveals revealed that Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates were the primary recipients of China's arms sales. The UAE has once eyed American F-35 jets.
"Former HR himself," a Weibo account with 2 million followers, wrote Saturday: "Small drone strikes and countermeasures against air defense missiles were not strong enough. Iran's biggest mistake was not purchasing weapons from China."
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) wrote in a March report: "While China is looking to increase its arms exports globally, many of the world's largest importers still choose not to buy major arms from China for political reasons.
"The bulk of Chinese arms exports (77 percent) went to states in Asia and Oceania, followed by those in Africa (14 percent). China delivered major arms to 44 states in 2020–24, but almost two-thirds of its arms exports (63 percent) went to just one state: Pakistan."
Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters Monday: "We stand ready to maintain communication and coordination with relevant parties, play a constructive role for the deescalation of the situation, and create a favorable environment for the political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue."
Israel's success against Iran could push that country towards acquiring Chinese air defense systems in the future. Other countries in the Middle East and beyond are likely to be watching and potentially looking more seriously at Chinese systems.
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Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
With US airstrikes, Trump aims to deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Iran
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump with his decision to order U.S. military strikes on Iran's nuclear facility is gambling that direct U.S. involvement can deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Tehran while managing to avoid bringing the U.S. into an expansive regional conflict. Trump announced the strikes on three Iranian enrichment facilities — Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan — and said that a 'full payload of BOMBS was dropped' on Fordo. 'All planes are safely on their way home,' Trump added in his post. 'Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!' It remained to be seen whether the attacks mark the totality of direct American involvement in strikes against Iran or the opening salvo of a larger campaign. Trump, who said he will address the nation about the strikes at 10 p.m. Eastern U.S. time, called it a 'very successful military operation.' The president also celebrated the strikes in a call with the news site Axios in which he said, 'We had great success tonight' and that 'Israel is much safer now.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday had said that Trump would decide whether to move forward with U.S. strikes on Iran within two weeks. But on Saturday afternoon, commercial flight trackers identified multiple U.S. aerial refueling tankers that were on a path suggesting that they were accompanying aircraft from the Midwest to the Pacific, raising speculation that something could be afoot. Still, the flight pattern left many in Washington speculating that an attack might happen soon but would not happen immediately because of the time it would take for the aircraft to make it to the region. But that aircraft may have been a decoy — it was not part of the the mission that was carried out early Sunday morning in Iran. Trump returned from his New Jersey golf club just after 6 p.m., and was to head to a previously scheduled meeting with his national security team. Less than two hours later, the president announced the strikes had been completed. The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S., as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault. The stakes are also high for Trump personally — he won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism. U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the U.S. 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground, including at Fordo. It was not immediately clear if the U.S. bombers did in fact drop the bunker busters on the Iranian facilities. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States in advance that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would 'result in irreparable damage for them.' And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared 'any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.' The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the damage inflicted by the bombings. Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would motivate the country's leaders to give up their nuclear program peacefully. But Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently. The Israelis have said their offensive has already crippled Iran's air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites. But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel had appealed to Trump for the U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its immense weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently only delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal. The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. Trump's decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program. For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time. The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks. All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a 'second chance' for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender. 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding,' Trump said in a social media posting. 'He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.' The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the 'worst deal ever.' The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran's non-nuclear malign behavior. Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars. The action by Trump immediately raised some concerns among U.S. lawmakers that the president had exceeded his authority. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., quickly posted on the social media site X: 'This is not Constitutional.' Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on social media that Trump hit Iran without congressional authorization and lawmakers should pass a resolution he's sponsoring with Massie 'to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.' Vice President JD Vance in a lengthy posting on X earlier this week defended his boss, while acknowledging that 'people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.' 'But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue,' Vance wrote. He added, 'I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people's goals.' Madhani and Boak write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J.
The Hill
41 minutes ago
- The Hill
With US airstrikes, Trump aims to deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump with his decision to order U.S. military strikes on Iran's nuclear facility is gambling that direct U.S. involvement can deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Tehran while managing to avoid bringing the U.S. into an expansive regional conflict. Trump announced the strikes on three Iranian enrichment facilities — Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan — and said that a 'full payload of BOMBS was dropped' on Fordo. 'All planes are safely on their way home,' Trump added in his post. 'Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!' It remained to be seen whether the attacks mark the totality of direct American involvement in strikes against Iran or the opening salvo of a larger campaign. The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S., as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault. The stakes are also high for Trump personally — he won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism. U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the U.S. 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground, including at Fordo. It was not immediately clear if the U.S. bombers did in fact drop the bunker busters on the Iranian facilities. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States in advance that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would 'result in irreparable damage for them.' And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared 'any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.' The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the damage inflicted by the bombings. Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would motivate the country's leaders to give up their nuclear program peacefully. But Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently. The Israelis have said their offensive has already crippled Iran's air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites. But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel had appealed to Trump for the U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its immense weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently only delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal. The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. Trump's decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program. For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time. The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks. All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a 'second chance' for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender. 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding,' Trump said in a social media posting. 'He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.' The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the 'worst deal ever.' The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran's non-nuclear malign behavior. Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars. Vice President JD Vance in a lengthy posting on X earlier this week defended his boss, while acknowledging that 'people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.' 'But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue,' Vance wrote. He added, 'I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people's goals.' ___ Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Trump makes the world a safer place — and shows America means exactly what it says
US planes bombed three Iranian nuclear sites Saturday, returning safely with President Donald Trump calling for an immediate peace now that, presumably, the work of destroying Tehran's nuke program is complete. The prez had warned that he'd be deciding 'within two weeks,' and as Iran made it clear Friday, there wasn't much point in waiting as its leaders began to attempt to give world leaders the runaround again. And that, as we noted Friday night, obliged Trump 'to pay even more heed to the risks of holding off on a decisive intervention.' President Trump ordered the bombings of 3 vital Iranian nuclear sites Saturday. Getty Images He plainly decided on a fast intervention, using US bunker-busters to take out the super hardened Fordow site with two other nuclear facilities. It was an action that as we have stated gives 'the best hope for the region to stabilize.' We'll see what comes next; Iran's noise about the United States taking action somehow triggering 'all-out war in the region' will hopefully prove to be nothing but characteristic bluster — but US forces in the Middle East will surely be on full alert for days, with bases worldwide on the watch for some sort of terror attack. Yet most fears of escalation seem ill-founded: Iran has proved unable to do much in the face of daily pounding by Israeli warplanes — a humiliation that all by itself posed a dire threat to the regime. It can't have been holding much back. The president tried to get this done peacefully, giving Tehran ample time to make a deal and clear warning of the consequences. Now, thanks to the bravery and professionalism of our armed forces, he has followed through on his warnings. The Israelis can stand down while the 'regime change' crowd heads back to its think tanks and the 'hundreds of thousands of Americans will die' kooks pretend they never predicted disaster. Moscow, Beijing and the rest of the world are on notice as Trump's clinical strikes reverse the damage of Biden's disastrous Afghanistan pull out. Trump doesn't chicken out — and when it comes to war, peace and America's national interests, he means exactly what he says.
