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Abstract
In recent years the Iranian government has emphasised its Look East approach. As a diplomatic choice, the Look East approach has also aroused different understandings among Iranian scholars and in this context, China has received more attention from Iran. For different reasons, many countries have tracked and observed Iran's Look East approach and China-Iran relations. At present, there are many negative perceptions about the Look East approach and Sino-Iranian relations in Iran and the international community. So far, China has made very few official comments on Iran's Look East approach, and this is essentially the case with Chinese scholars and media. China is very concerned about whether Iran's Look East approach is an act of political expediency or a strategy. Some of Iran's actions in the past few years have partially proved the necessity for China to be so suspicious. Although there are some negative views of China in Iran, Beijing should still pay more attention to deepening relations with Tehran. Even if Iran's Look East approach is not a long-term strategy, it is no longer just an expedient measure to deal with Western sanctions. China must be an important goal of Iran's multilateral diplomacy. China and Iran, which need each other, urgently need to increase political mutual trust.
Acknowledgements
I thank Mr. Ben Houghton very much for his indispensable help with this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
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3 See Jalal Dehghani Firouzabadi, Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran: Position Organization, 2013.
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Hongda Fan
Hongda Fan is a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, China. His research mainly focuses on Middle East politics and Chinese diplomacy. Since 2010 he has been doing in-depth fieldwork in Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. He spent one year as a visiting professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel and one year as a teacher at Isfahan University in Iran. He has published four books on the Middle East, including Iran and United States, from Friend to Enemy and A Chinese Thinker Walking in the Middle East. Email: [email protected]