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Abstract
This article examines several under-explored aspects of Sino-Iranian relations in the 1970s, the process of Sino-Iranian rapprochement, and China's reaction to the 1979 revolution. By relying on sources in both Chinese and Persian and pushing back the timeline to 1965, it analyses the role of China's unofficial support for Iranian Maoism on official relations, the personal role of the Shah and the women of the royal family, China's internal view of the Islamic Republic shortly after 1979, and the role of propaganda and performativity in Sino-Iranian diplomacy. In doing so, it sheds new light on old topics and expands on previous studies that focus primarily on the official politics of rapprochement and the post-1971 era.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 People’s Daily, ‘在巴列维国王陛下举行的欢迎宴会上At the welcome banquet held by His Majesty King Pahlavi’, August 30, 1978, 2nd ed.
2 Hua Liming, ‘28年前——在伊朗感受革命 28 years ago - I experienced the Iranian Revolution’, 世界知识杂志, March 22nd, 2007. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-03-22/143512585992.shtml (accessed 14 July 2021).
3 This was not the only time this happened. John Garver recounts another unnamed Chinese ambassador who recalled “with incredulity” disparaging remarks about the Shah made by U.S Ambassador Stansfield Turner in 1978 as the Shah’s position worsened. John Garver, China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World. University of Washington Press, 2006, p. 55.
4 Hua Liming, ‘28年前’.
5 Garver, p. 55.
6 Ibid.
7 Garver, p. 64.
8 In addition to Garver and Abidi, see Shirzad Azad, Iran and China: A New Approach to their Bilateral Relations. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2017; Dina Esfandiary and Ariane Tabatabai, Triple Axis: Iran's Relations with Russia and China. London: I.B. Tauris, 2018; Majid Hadi′zadah, Chīn Va Irtibāṭāt-i Īrānī-islāmī (China and Iranian-Islamic Relations). Iṣfahān: Markaz-i Muṭāla‘āt-i Islāmī, 1391/2012; Behzad Shahzadeh, ‘ravābet-e īran va jomhūri-ye khalq-e chin dar dahe-ye haftād mīlyādi’ (Relations Between Iran and the People’s Republic of China in the 1970s). Dissertation, University of Tehran, 1361/1982; Zongxian Lin, Zhong Gong Yu Yilang Guan Xi Zhi Yan Jiu --1979 Nian Zhi 2008 Nian. Taibei Shi: zhi zhi xue shu chu ban she, 2014.
9 In addition to examples in the previous note, see Yingsheng Liu, (刘迎胜) 丝绸之路 (The Silk Road). Xinbei: Xin yu chu ban she, 2017. Published in English as The History of the Silk Road: The Land & Maritime Routes. Canut, 2018; Daniel Rezapour and Reza Simbar, ‘China's New Silk Road Initiative: Opportunities and Threats for Iran, Pakistan and Kazakhstan' (ابتکار جاده ابريشم نوين چين؛ فرصتها و تهديدها براي ايران، پاکستان و قزاقستان ). International Political Economy Studies (مطالعات اقتصاد سیاسی بینالملل ) Vol. 1. Issue 1 (2019); Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History with Documents. Oxford University Press, 2017; Steven A. Yetiv and Katerina Oskarsson, Challenged Hegemony: The United States, China, and Russia In the Persian Gulf. Stanford University Press, 2020; Nicola Di Cosmo and Michael Maas, Empires and Exchanges In Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, Ca. 250-750. Cambridge University Press, 2018; Osamah F. Khalil, United States Relations with China and Iran: Toward the Asian Century. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
10 Garver, 3-6. See also, Ann-Marie Brady, Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People’s Republic of China. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
11 William Figueroa, China and the Iranian Left: Transnational Networks of Social, Cultural, and Ideological Exchange, 1905-1979. PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 2020.
12 Noureddin Kianouri qtd. in Mahiar Behrooz, Rebels With a Cause: The Failure of the Iranian Left. I.B Taurus 2nd Ed, 2000, p. 20.
13 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXII, Iran, Document 178, p. 323.
14 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXII, Iran Document 2.
15 Ibid, Document 86, p. 153.
16 Ibid, pp. 163, 334.
17 Ibid, pp. 410, 540.
18 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–4, Documents on Iran, and Iraq, 1969– 1972 Document 84, p. 7.
19 Ibid, Document 203, 4.
20 A.H.H. Abidi, China, Iran, and the Persian Gulf. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1982, p. 52.
21 H.I.H. Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror: Memoirs from Exile. MW Books, 1980.
22 Abidi, p. 59.
23 Ibid, p. 106.
24 People’s Daily, ‘在京的二十个亚非国家和地区的革命作家记者等发表声明’, January 16th, 1967.
25 Shahzadeh, pp. 161–168.
26 Ibid, p. 168.
27 Hamid Showkat, Negahi az darun be jonbesh-e chap-e Iran: goftegu ba Mohsen Rezvani (An Inside Look at the Iranian Left: Conversation with Mohsen Rezvani). Akhtaran, 1384/2005.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
William Figueroa
William Figueroa is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Middle East Center, where he pursues his research into historical and contemporary Sino-Iranian relations. He received his PhD in History last year from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation, “China and the Iranian Left: Transnational Networks of Social, Cultural, and Ideological Exchange, 1905-1979”.