"A substantial volume of Chinese dual-use components continues to flow to Iran's defense ministry, serving as a critical lifeline for Tehran’s military infrastructure despite extensive U.S. sanctions.
Recent investigations by The Wall Street Journal analyzing Iranian customs records revealed that Chinese entities dispatched approximately 1,300 air shipments of dual-use materials to Iran’s Ministry of Defense in the first half of 2026. This clandestine logistical network has severely complicated Washington's efforts to isolate Iran economically and militarily.
Key Revelations from the Customs Data
• Drone and Missile Production: The shipments from China primarily consist of crucial "dual-use" electronic and mechanical parts. These include GPS tracking devices, electric motors, microchips, and aircraft engine parts that can be utilized for civilian infrastructure but are actively diverted into manufacturing Iran’s lethal drone and missile guidance systems.
• Defying Diplomatic Progress: Strikingly, Chinese cargo aircraft have delivered these components even during periods of public diplomacy. Documents show a plane carrying electronic hardware landed in Tehran on the exact day a temporary U.S.-Iran ceasefire was finalized, followed just two days later by shipments of drone-related parts valued at over $6 million.
• Sanctions Evasion Infrastructure: Because the United States has squeezed maritime trade, cargo flights operated by U.S.-sanctioned carriers like Mahan Air have surged nearly sevenfold to handle the influx of Chinese components.
The Geopolitical and Energy Stakes
Beijing has effectively established what experts call an "axis of evasion". In addition to sending tech components, China acts as the primary remaining buyer of Iranian crude oil. Utilizing side deals, barter-like mechanisms, shell companies, and Chinese financial networks operating outside of the U.S. dollar system, China provides a financial buffer that keeps the Iranian regime afloat.
While U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments have leveled hundreds of sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong front organizations, the White House faces a highly delicate diplomatic balance. Confronting Beijing directly risks destabilizing wider trade relations and could trigger economic retaliation from China—such as choking off American access to vital rare earth materials.
“This summer, when the U.S. and Iran signed a temporary truce, China touted its role in easing tensions in the Middle East. It said its foreign ministry made dozens of calls to nudge peace along, and that President Xi Jinping himself had intervened with suggestions to end the fighting.
That same day, a plane from China landed in Tehran. It carried a shipment for Iran's Ministry of Defense that included electronics components that can be used to make parts for drones and missile guidance systems, according to Iranian customs data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
It was one of around 1,300 shipments that included "dual use" components from China to Iran's defense ministry this year through the end of June, customs data show. Two days after the components shipment, there were more than a dozen other shipments carrying parts worth more than $6 million that can be used in drones.
China's support for Iran also comes from its purchases of Iranian oil, despite U.S. sanctions meant to stop the flows, providing billions of dollars for Tehran this year. Chinese front companies help launder the funds, while Chinese banks route the transactions through the country's financial plumbing, using China's currency, to evade U.S. oversight, U.S. officials and people familiar with the flows say.
On the battlefield, satellite imagery procured from Chinese entities has been linked by U.S. officials to an Iranian strike that killed three American troops, the Journal reported.
Chinese companies have also helped provide chemical precursors used to manufacture the types of ballistic missiles used in the attack, according to a document viewed by the Journal and people familiar with the matter.
The actions illustrate a level of Chinese support for Iran that hasn't been previously reported or publicly acknowledged by the Trump administration. That support has helped extend a conflict that is increasing global energy prices, draining weapons stockpiles and heaping pressure on Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
Beijing said it consistently abides by international rules and opposes "attempts to smear China by associating it with the conflict." It said China maintains cooperation with Iran and supports all efforts toward peace in the Middle East.
In the past, China has said it strictly regulates the export of dual-use components, which can serve both civilian and military purposes. It has said it rejects unilateral U.S. sanctions, including those that punish unauthorized trading of dual-use materials, saying the sanctions violate international law.
Iranian officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
Washington has launched hundreds of sanctions targeting Iran since the war began on Feb. 28, including penalties against companies and individuals in China it believes are helping Tehran. Those steps, along with an embargo of Iranian trade, have caused a contraction of Iran's economy.
But the White House has proven reluctant to more seriously confront Beijing over its support for Iran, which has continued launching attacks on U.S. forces and oil infrastructure in the Middle East.
Trump has made improved relations with Beijing a priority after a tariff war last year showed China has options to hurt the U.S. economy, including restricting American access to rare earth materials.
Ahead of this week's summit, Trump told top officials and aides that maintaining good relations with Xi is a priority, people familiar with the discussions said. As a result, senior officials have repeatedly played down the significance of Chinese aid to Iran, avoiding criticism of Beijing that could jeopardize the meeting.
Many within the administration believe the reluctance to take on Beijing is weakening America's ability to pressure Tehran. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have called on Trump to confront Xi more directly.
Trump brushed off concerns about Chinese support for Iran when asked whether he would raise the issue with Xi. "I think he's behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well," he said.
Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. and China would have "a very frank conversation" at the Xi-Trump summit. "We'll talk about everything that's relevant."
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department said it maintains an active channel with Chinese counterparts and won't hesitate to act when warranted. "This administration has repeatedly targeted malign Iran-related activity that exploits or transits China's jurisdiction and will continue to do so," the spokesperson said.
The White House has said it is working aggressively to disrupt and penalize anyone who does business with the Iranian regime.
In backing Iran, Beijing hopes to undermine Washington's diplomatic standing and draw down U.S. weapons inventories, weakening it militarily, political analysts say. Yet China is also wary of going too far. It values economic ties with America, and as the world's largest energy importer, China suffers if the oil shock caused by the conflict drags on.
The shipments to Iran's defense ministry that were reviewed by the Journal are part of a surge in flights with cargo from China to Iran this year. The air bridge has become a crucial supply route for Iran's drone and ballistic-missile programs as the U.S. Navy blocks Iranian sea trade, defense experts say.
The shipments have arrived at Imam Khomeini International Airport. The boxes are packed with GPS tracking devices, electric motors and aircraft engine parts, according to Iranian customs records provided by trade database ImportGenius.
Records from January 2025 to the end of June this year show thousands of shipments to Iran's defense ministry and Iranian companies of items that can be used to build drones and other weapons. Many of the entries are marked with a reference to "Article 119," a section in Iranian customs regulations that grants full tariff exemptions for armaments and defense imports.
China has offered economic and military support for Iran for decades. They deepened ties after the Trump administration in 2018 launched a "maximum pressure" campaign to cut Iranian oil exports to zero and force Iran to negotiate over its nuclear program. The campaign included sanctions penalizing foreign entities that helped Iran, cutting them off from the U.S.-led global financial system.
Rejecting those rules, Tehran and Beijing signed a 25-year strategic pact in 2021. China became Iran's biggest oil importer, buying up more than 80% of its crude exports, according to U.S. lawmakers. An elaborate network of Chinese banks and Hong Kong shell companies evolved to help Iran evade sanctions and keep oil flowing, the Journal has reported.
Chinese exporters of dual-use goods and electronics also began attending trade fairs in Iran, translating their corporate slogans into Farsi to build local ties, according to an analysis of social-media posts by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
In the following years, Chinese companies produced for Iran chemical materials such as sodium perchlorate, which is used to make propellant for ballistic missiles. The exports became more important for Iran after Israel largely destroyed its missile program in attacks in 2024, forcing the regime to replenish its arsenal.
The sales became widely known when the Journal and others reported on them in 2025. U.S. forces later that year raided a ship carrying dual-use components from China to Iran.
One Chinese company that attempted to sell chemical materials, Haokun Energy, told a U.S.-sanctioned importer of products for Iran last December that exports of sodium perchlorate required government licenses. It said it had coordinated with Chinese authorities "to process part of the licenses confidentially," Haokun wrote in a letter viewed by the Journal.
Treasury had earlier sanctioned Haokun and the importer for helping Iran sell oil to China. The December letter said Haokun had set up a Beijing-based shell company for the sodium perchlorate transaction. The Journal verified the company was established weeks before the letter's date. It couldn't be determined if the deal progressed. Haokun didn't respond to requests for comment.
Days before the U.S.-Iran war began, Iranian customs data showed a delivery of 300 tons of chemical compounds from China to Iran's ministry of defense.
Once the war started, trade between Iran and China initially collapsed, according to Iranian customs data and Kpler, a firm that tracks oil shipments. The U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports, announced in April, further tightened the noose.
Tehran responded by expanding air links between China and Iran via Mahan Air, an Iranian airline sanctioned by the U.S. that Treasury says has ferried cash, weapons and personnel for Iran. The airline increased flights from China to Tehran to about 27 a week by the end of April from four at the start of March, according to FlightRadar24 data. Air shipments to Iran's ministry of defense accelerated, customs data show. Mahan didn't respond to requests for comment.
Researchers who track trade with Iran say the shipments involve little-known Chinese suppliers working with Iranian importers. Some of the components on offer are known to be used to make Shahed drones, said Kate Koren, deputy director of the economics program at CSIS in Washington. The cheap but deadly Iranian drones have caused significant damage to U.S. bases.
In a soon-to-be-published report, Koren said she found several Chinese companies that had advertised sales this year for sensitive electronics, including those found in the Shahed.
In May, Treasury sanctioned Chinese and Hong Kong-based companies it said were trying to help Iran acquire weapons, including shoulder-fired missile launchers. A video posted that month on Iran's Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, showed members of the militia getting training on how to use the missile launchers, known as manpads, to shoot down U.S. fighter jets.
Iran currently operates manpads that it makes inside the country based on older Chinese versions, according to former Treasury officials. But Iranian officials want China's latest models, which are more effective, the former officials said.
Over the following weeks, U.S. officials sanctioned more Chinese individuals and companies for procuring weapons for Iran. One of the procurement networks tried to buy manpads for Iran's Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation, which adapts foreign-made weapons to be produced at home, U.S. officials said.
The group tried to deliver the manpads to Iran via Belarus to obfuscate the Iranian end-user, but it wasn't successful, U.S. officials said.
On June 17, the U.S. and Iran signed a 60-day truce. Days later, Iranian customs noted air shipments from China with more than $6 million of electronics components that the U.S. government has said are used for a variety of military purposes, including in flight control units for precision-guided weapons.
In July, the U.S. added new sanctions on individuals and companies working for Mahan Air, including a China-based company it said acted as a sales agent for the airline, coordinating the transport of electronics. The U.S. issued more than 100 additional sanctions that month.
But divisions were deepening within the administration over how hard to press China.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers in July that China, along with Russia, was enabling Iran "at different levels."
Days later, Trump pushed back. "I don't know that they're enabling," he said, insisting that Xi had personally assured him China wouldn't provide Iran with weapons.
"I trust them," he said of Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There could be some things they do. But thus far, at least, it has not been major."
The same week, after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila, Rubio told reporters that "nothing that China has done has in any way changed the trajectory" of the conflict. Beijing had in some instances been "quite cooperative," he said.
Concerns grew more urgent after U.S. officials concluded Iran had used Chinese satellite imagery before and after a July 17 strike that killed three U.S. troops, linking it directly to the attack. The Trump administration had already sanctioned three Chinese satellite-imagery companies in May for providing data it said could help Iran target U.S. forces.
In late August, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched "Operation Economic Outcast," a program to "sever every economic lifeline" sustaining the Iranian regime.
The U.S. added sanctions against a China-owned oil tanker that transported Iranian oil and a network of Chinese companies and individuals that helped Iran obtain critical components. But no major Chinese companies were targeted.
When reporters twice asked Bessent whether the administration would strengthen sanctions against Chinese banks and businesses, Bessent declined to single out China, saying that "every country" should be prepared to face U.S. sanctions.
Although the U.S. blockade has made it much harder for Iran to export oil, some keeps flowing to China. About four million barrels were delivered to China in the week after "Operation Economic Outcast" was launched, according to Kpler calculations.
Mahan Air, meanwhile, flew from China to Iran 39 times in the first week of September, double its prewar level, according to FlightRadar24.
Many of the flights appear to be focused only on cargo, rather than moving passengers. Many tracked by FlightRadar24 in early September, for example, weren't available for booking on the airline's website.
Last week, Iranian state-affiliated media said Mahan would suspend flights to Oman and Turkey. But the airline continues to fly to China.” [1]
1. Iran Has a Secret Weapon in War With America: Help From China --- Customs data show Chinese entities ship components used in drones and missiles. Jones, Rory; Emont, Jon; Bergengruen, Vera; Said, Summer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 25 Sep 2026: A1.
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