Amid the Trump administration's all-time high pressure on Iran, manifested in its decision not to extend sanctions waivers granted to Tehran's key oil customers, Iran-US tensions are reaching levels unseen in recent decades. To alleviate the burden on its shoulders, Iran might not be fully capitalizing on China as its leading oil buyer. Yet Beijing could continue to be a key part of Iran's solution to mitigate the impacts of biting US sanctions.

There is a lot about China to make it a valuable ally for Iran: It is Tehran's top trade partner, receives the largest share of Iran's crude exports and is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Above all, China is one of the committed signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and one of Tehran's major political allies.

Iran-China relations have in recent decades been more trilateral than bilateral, as the United States has imposed its presence to shape those ties one way or another. Washington's pressure on Beijing has placed restrictions on those relations, but shared concerns about US foreign policy have also brought Iran and China closer together, creating grounds for further cooperation.

US measures meant to minimize interaction between Iran and China are no novelty. Such policies date to the 1980s, when Washington relentlessly opposed Chinese arms sales to Iran as the latter was busy waging a protracted war initiated by neighboring Iraq. The US pressure on China in the mid-1990s over its nuclear cooperation with Iran worked to the point of bringing the collaboration to a complete halt. Nonetheless, despite ups and downs, China and Iran have over time maintained an overall close relationship.