User:Hcberkowitz/Sandbox-Chinese support for Iran during the Iran-Iraq war

China, directly or indirectly, provided a very substantial amount of the weapons acquired by Iran duing the Iran-Iraq War. They did so both for oil and cash, but also to compete with the U.S. and Soviet Union for influence with Iran. The Chinese government, however, has insisted it is neutral, and indeed, some of its sales have been deniable because they were sent through third countries, North Korea at first, then China's neighbor titled to the Soviet Union, other intermediaries, such as Hong Kong.

The support has included both weapons both basic and sophisticated (e.g., the Silkworm anti-shipping missile) as well as technology transfer. China has been reported to be seeking export markets to compensate for decreasing military budgets, but also, at the time of the Iran-Iraq War, to balance Soviet influence in the region.

Among the arms China is thought to have sold Iran are Chinese-made field guns, Chinese versions of the Soviet MIG-19 and MIG-21 fighters and Chinese-manufactured T-59 tanks, also a copy of a Soviet design. Information on those arms was provided by one diplomat but could not be confirmed by others.

Motivations for Policy

According to an Asian diplomat, China's interest in selling arms to Iran has far less to do with financial gain than with strategic interests. China, the diplomat said, wants to use Iran as a counterweight to the Soviet Union and to Soviet influence in Afghanistan.

Counter to Soviet Influence

As PRC-Soviet relations worsened in the late 1960s and the 1970s, relations thawed as China saw a strong Iran – even though it was governed by the pro-U.S., anti-Communist Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – as an obstacle to Soviet aims to expand its influence in the Persian Gulf, according to articles in China’s press during that period. After the fall of the Shah at the hands of the Islamic revolution in February 1979, Iran-China relations warmed further. In January 1980,China abstained on a U.N. Security Council vote to sanction Iran for the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis .

In an effort to bolster Iran against Iraq, which was backed by the Soviet Union, China established itself as a key arms supplier to Iran soon after the Iran-Iraq war broke out in September 1980.

Technology transfer incentive in 1985

In June 1985, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, then parliament speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani visited Beijing and reportedly signed missile technology agreements with China.25 That visit apparently opened Iran to the supply of Chinese-made Silkworm surface-to-surface anti-ship missiles (55 mile range). During the latter stages of the Iran-Iraq war, which ended in August 1988, Iran fired Silkworms at U.S. Navy-escorted oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and at Kuwaiti oil terminals. During 1987-88, China reportedly built Iran’s infrastructure to design, build, and test ballistic missiles and to extend their ranges.

Export Controls

The Washington Post believed the Chinese had insisted "its aircraft and tanks be restricted to defense of the Iranian capital" as a condition of sale. This in turn would "free more sophisticated Iranian weapons - mostly supplied by the United States before the late shah was overthrown - for active combat against Iraq" (12). But defense analysts and arms brokers agreed there was another reason as well: the Chinese MiGs were virtually useless against high-flying aircraft and barely managed to get airborne before they ran out of gas.

Actions as intermediate in shipping to final destination

Chinese officials, according to American diplomats, have maintained that they had nothing to do with selling arms to Iran, but that North Korea had done so on its own. This assertion, however, has been rejected by Washington. Last month, a seven-member delegation of foreign ministers from Arab League nations visited Beijing and raised the issue of Chinese arms sales to Iran with Chinese officials at every level, according to an Asian diplomat.

Several Western European businessmen in Beijing said China had offered to trade oil in exchange for their products rather than make a straightforward cash purchase. An American oil executive here said today: "It's Iranian oil. That's what they're using."

Asian and European diplomats said China could use Iranian oil in trade arrangements only if it had more oil from its arms sales than it needed.

Land warfare

Tanks and other armored fighting vehicles

250 T-59 and amphibious T-52 tanks, According to Globalsecurity.org, Iran appears to have multiple names for individual missile types. Most went into indigenous production after the Iran-Iraq War ended, but prototypes from other countries may have come into Iranian hands in the mid-80s. The prototypes include Chinese derivatives of Soviet designs as well as Chinese and North Korean designs. The specific discussion of nomenclature is under an article about a missile that became operational in 2002, but appears to be a characteristic of Iranian development programs.

Technology

During the Iran-Iraq War, the then-head of Iran's Parliament, Hojatolislam Hashemi Rafsanjani, took steps to strengthen Iran's missile program. In 1985, Rafsanjani led a high-level delegation to Libya, Syria, North Korea and China. As a result of the trip, Iran obtained Scud missiles from Libya and North Korea, and later acquired rocket components and know-how from both North Korea and China.

Surface-to-Surface

Iran's determination to acquire and produce ballistic missiles grew out of its war with Iraq in the 1980s. Tehran found itself ill-prepared to retaliate against Iraq's missile attacks on Iranian cities. Tehran decided that for its own protection, it had to achieve self-reliance in military, and especially missile production. "Iran wants its own stuff now, to be no longer dependent on outsiders for weapon supplies," says a U.S. official who tracks missile proliferation.

One of Iran's earliest steps toward self-reliance was to produce the "Mushak" short-range surface-to-surface missile. A U.S. official compares this primitive solid fuel missile to the unguided Soviet Frog missile and to the Pakistani Haft-1 missile, which flies about 80 kilometers. The first Mushak, also known as the Iran-130, was test-fired in early 1988, and is designed to fly to a maximum range of 130 kilometers. By March 1988, five Mushak missiles had been fired at Iraq during the War of the Cities. And by August 1988, Tehran had test-fired a 160-kilometer-range Mushak and announced that mass production would soon follow. Iran claims that the Mushak was designed and produced without foreign help, but Chinese assistance is suspected.

Anti-shipping

China, via North Korea, sent Chinese designed-and-built Silkworm anti-shipping missiles to Iran. Iraq may also have had them at the time; Iraq used them against Coalition ships in 1991.

Iraqi example of land-based Silkworm

While they can be used on missile boats and larger ships, Iran used the more common shore-based, truck-mobile launchers.

In March 1987, when United States Secretary of State Schultz expressed concern over Iran's deployment of Chinese-built "Silkworm" missiles at bases overlooking the Straights of Hormuz and on the newly-captured Faw Peninsula. In 1987, Iran purchased Chinese Silkworm anti-ship missiles, which were sent via North Korea so Beijing could deny responsibility for the exports. Since then, Iran has advanced beyond the Silkworm by acquiring the new C-802, an anti-ship missile that is more accurate and reliable than the Silkworm and can fly about 120 kilometers. During the Iran-Iraq war, Tehran fired at least 10 coastal-based Chinese missiles at Kuwait, one of which hit a U.S.-flagged oil tanker. Iran has also acquired 20 Chinese CSS-8 surface-to-surface missiles, which can carry a 190 kilogram warhead up to 150 kilometers.

In 1988, the press reported that China had signed an agreement to supply Iran with technology and equipment needed to produce Chinese "M-series" missiles, with ranges up to 900 kilometers. Hard evidence of transfers of finished missiles is lacking, and U.S. officials claim that Washington has convinced China not to export its M-9 and M-11 missiles to Iran. A U.S. official tells the Risk Report: "We have effectively got China out of the transfer of complete missile systems."