Why Is China Pushing Iran Talks Now? Beijing’s Hormuz Bid

On Monday 2 November, China’s foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Wang Yi had received Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in Beijing. The ministry had not announced the visit beforehand. Wang Yi then met Saudi national security adviser Musaed al-Aiban, and the ministry said President Xi Jinping hosted Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman.

China’s foreign ministry said that Zhai Jun, Beijing’s special envoy for the Middle East, will visit Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia later this month. A ministry spokesperson called the trips “shuttle diplomacy visits”. The announcement came two days after Trump said the United States had knocked out much of Iran’s military but still had to “take care of” one or two targets. Tehran warned of reprisals if it is attacked.

Iran said its talks with Washington and its offer on the Strait of Hormuz continued the same day. Iranian officials also said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin.

Wang Yi told Iran that China backs its sovereignty and told Saudi Arabia that shipping lanes must be safe. Xi told the Omani sultan that the Gulf should not become an arena for great-power rivalry. The Russian call is known only from what Iran said about it. China announced an envoy’s trip but no plan, deadline or guarantee.

Wang Yi told Bagheri Kani that dialogue and negotiation were the only viable path, as regional conflicts drag on and risk further spillover. In the Chinese readout, he said all sides should “focus on a political solution rather than once again resorting to armed conflict”. He added that Beijing supports Tehran in safeguarding its own sovereignty and security.

With al-Aiban, Wang Yi called for dialogue “while safeguarding regional energy security and the safety of shipping lanes”.

Xi’s remarks to the Omani sultan were the broadest. He told him the Middle East and the Gulf “should not become an arena for great-power rivalry and geopolitical conflict”, and that China was ready to “contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region”. China’s readout described the visit as the first by an Omani head of state since the two countries established relations in 1978, and said they signed 14 documents covering artificial intelligence, green energy and supply chains, plus a currency swap. In their joint statement, as translated, China and Oman called for safe navigation through Hormuz to resume and for the United States and Iran to restart dialogue.

Al-Aiban has been in this room before. In March 2023, Wang Yi hosted him and Iran’s then security chief Ali Shamkhani for the agreement that restored Saudi and Iranian relations. On Monday, Wang Yi received al-Aiban and an Iranian deputy security chief on the same day, and Xi received the sultan of Oman, whose country faces Iran across the strait.

The Chinese readouts put sovereignty and security in Wang Yi’s words to Iran and energy security and shipping lanes in his words to Riyadh. Xi told a Gulf head of state, in the ministry’s account, that great-power rivalry should stay out of the region.

Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said “China is very close to Tehran; it is the biggest trading partner of Iran, the biggest customer of Iranian crude.” She added: “I think China is very frustrated, and it wants to be seen to enter [the process].” She said Chinese diplomacy on the war had stalled for weeks or months before Monday.

Trump spoke on Saturday, three days before the 3 November midterms. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Iran can reopen Hormuz within two days if Washington accepts Tehran’s demands, as set out in our earlier analysis of the two-day plan. The Chinese readouts of Monday’s meetings do not mention that plan.

Zhai Jun’s itinerary is the first marker: whether Tehran, Muscat and Riyadh each receive him, and in what order, as the foreign ministry announced. The second is any US reply to the Chinese call to restart dialogue; none had been reported on Monday evening. The third is the Hormuz status tracker, which will show whether ship movements follow the diplomacy.

In Wang Yi’s words on Monday, “dialogue and negotiation” are the only path, and he named no terms. What Iran and Washington do with that depends on what happens after the midterms.