Yes, this is some of the biggest news of the year regarding Iran’s ongoing revolutionary acts and the influence of China.  Yes, China intends to use Iran for its own purposes and to benefit from taking its natural resources at a cheap price (by violating sanction purchases), but the agreement enables all the bad actions of Iran from intimidating neighbors (all the way to Europe and South America) to terrorism to supporting Hezbollah.  “Iran and China sign 25-year cooperation agreement,” Maziar Motamedi, Al Jazeera, March 27, 2021.  Pres. Rouhani thanked FM Wang “for China’s stance on the nuclear deal and standing up to “American unilateralism.”  Notice the next sentence—“The president also said Iran and China can work together to fight “terrorism and extremism in the region” in addition to economic and trade cooperation.” This means that the chief terror state gets cover from China, and flips the definition and responsibility for terror on its head.

So, don’t think of this as an Iran-China agreement.  It is a Khamenei-Xi treaty, designed to keep a tight grip on their countries for years.  “Iran, China sign 25-year cooperation accord,” Reuters, Jerusalem Post, March 27, 2021.

“Can Iran’s Presidential Elections Save Khamenei And His Regime?,” Cyrus Yaqubi, op-ed, Eurasia Review, March 27, 2021.