China has plenty of Muslims; millions of them. Some of those Muslims will be owners / managers of factories and it is quite likely some of them will have sympathies with Iran.

Given the scale of the Chinese diaspora, there are Chinese business people everywhere who, for a fee, could facilitate the shipment of a container from China to Iran by the most circuitous, hard-to-trace route imaginable.

China is big and central control is not as complete as many in the west seem to imagine. An Iranian company could place orders with a Chinese company for “widgets” without the relevant departments in the central Chinese government becoming aware of what exactly those “widgets” consisted of.

The Iranians are not stupid either. It doesn’t seem likely to me that they would have approached the Chinese government, or even a Chinese company, directly. Assuming that the transaction did actually occur, I would expect there would have been lots of middle-men.

Russia is facing their own challenge with Islam as well and yet they back Iran.

Why did Bush back Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia after 911?

sharrukin on February 14, 2013 at 1:44 PM

Russia (Soviet Union) has supported Iran for decades because
- it increased its supply of oil (when its own reserves were largely untapped)
- a friendly Iran offered a route to the Persian Gulf for their military in a time of tension, and
- geo-politically they knew that supporting an activist Iran would tie down US resources in the Persian Gulf.

The US had been the largest supplier of weapons to Iran prior to the hostage taking when we were replaced by the Soviets. They also were reaping the fruits of an enormously rich contract to build Iran’s nuclear power plants.

As to George Bush and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – neither country was known to be a state sponsor of terrorism. As we came to learn, the ISI is up to its eyeballs in support for the Taliban, but abandoning Pakistan would leave us weakened with respect to helping maintain the security of Pakistan’s existing nuclear weapons.

Saudi Arabia is an exporter of the Wahabist sect of Islam which teaches fundamentalist tenets and is associated with some of the more virulent ideas used by jihadists. The US should have limited their access to the US and certainly proscribed the funding of the growing network of Wahabist mosques in the US. But we have the Freedom of Religion thingy that makes it tough to do that.

They’re going to film a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog?

The Rogue Tomato on February 14, 2013 at 12:03 PM

Now there’s a mental image! Thanks for the laugh, I needed it!

I was under the impression that China is facing its own challenges with Islamic militants. Why would they strengthen the known primary supporter of Jihad by supplying materials needed to create the alpha intimidation weapon?

in_awe on February 14, 2013 at 1:37 PM

Russia is facing their own challenge with Islam as well and yet they back Iran.

Why did Bush back Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia after 911?

tells us plenty about China’s commitment to the non-proliferation effort in regard to Tehran

So, once again, what purpose does the United Nations serve? Let me rephrase, what positive value is it to the United States?

China, population 1.344, 130,000.

Iran, population 74,798,000.

China can sustain a lot more losses than Iran.

And, importantly, has the will to do so.

China knows this.

I suspect Iran does as well.

The West? Especially the Euros and the US?

Remember back when there were ‘rumors” that Iran might be fabricating the initial capability to maybe develop a nuclear weapons program and as soon as somebody suggested we or Israel do something to preempt that effort…everybody…I mean every body on both sides of the aisle…went nuts.

Can’t have another war.

Bush is a war monger.

Bush hates Moslems.

Bush wants to kill innocent Iranian children.

Let’s let sanctions have a chance to work.

Let’s not antagonize the Arab street. [Like the Arabs give a damn about the Persians anyway.]

Well, here we are, a mere decade later.

Worse off than we were ten years ago…when that evil George Bush was in charge.

And Iran?

Knows damn well that there is not a single thing the West is gonna do about it.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend…or at least the enemy of my enemy…it’s not about being eaten last, it’s about frustrating US/Western interests in the ME.

JFKY on February 14, 2013 at 11:56 AM

Exactly. China has no fear of the Persians or the muslims. China could take them out in a second. China does fear a West that loses its current cowardice and appeasement stance to every third-world hellhole around and, since the West seems to sink deeper into appeasement with every provocation the Chinese are happy to help the Persians along – especially while we have the Indonesian Dog-Eating Imbecile at the helm, helping to destroy the West from within, by the West’s own suicidal tendencies.

Do not arm someone who intends you harm, in the vain hope of being the last sheep eaten. Because you’ll still wind up eaten.

rbj on February 14, 2013 at 11:52 AM

The enemy of my enemy is my friend…or at least the enemy of my enemy…it’s not about being eaten last, it’s about frustrating US/Western interests in the ME.

China should have exposed this attempt. The fact that they didn’t, and that Iran went to China to purchase them in the first place, tells us plenty about China’s commitment to the non-proliferation effort in regard to Tehran.

China does realize that the mullahs dream of a global caliphate right? And global includes China. Do not arm someone who intends you harm, in the vain hope of being the last sheep eaten. Because you’ll still wind up eaten.

China has a seat on the UN Security Council, and is supposedly part of the effort to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. China should have exposed this attempt.

ROFLMAO!! You are funny.

But I hope China is penal ized for this! Buahhhhhh ;-)

Ben Hur on February 14, 2013 at 11:39 AM

Some kind of perverts, we are.

That would be enough to male 50,000 centrifuges, which would exponentially increase the speed of their uranium enrichment:

Something kinda wrong here Ed.

Electrongod on February 14, 2013 at 11:27 AM

I’m sure he meant that would be enough to MAIL 50,000 centrifuges.

It’s a Muslim country. They don’t allow female centrifuges.

Bat Chain Puller on February 14, 2013 at 11:33 AM

At least exposed anyway.