Will China Come To Iran's Rescue?

Will China Come To Iran's Rescue?

Middle East Eye

As tensions between Iran and the US-Israeli alliance approach a critical juncture, a question echoes through global capitals, newsrooms and policy circles: will China come to Iran’s rescue? And if so, what would that assistance look like

The answer defies the binary expectations of traditional military alliances. China is unlikely to dispatch troops or engage directly in any conflict, but to interpret this as passivity would be to misread the nature of 21st-century great power competition. 

China's support for Iran is real, multifaceted, and in some ways more sustainable than military intervention; it just operates on a different strategic wavelength.

At the UN Security Council, China has consistently deployed its most potent weapon: the veto-wielding power of principle. In an emergency meeting last month, Chinese Ambassador Sun Lei delivered a stark message to Washington: "The use of force can never solve problems. It will only make them more complex and intractable. Any military adventurism would only push the region toward an unpredictable abyss."

This is not empty rhetoric. China’s official position explicitly supports "safeguarding Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity”, while opposing “the threat or use of force in international relations”. 

By anchoring its stance in the UN Charter and international law, China provides Tehran with something invaluable: legitimacy on the world stage, and a powerful counter-narrative to western pressure.

Strategic alignment

The diplomatic calculus shifted fundamentally when Iran was formally approved in 2021 as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), joining China, Russia and Central Asian nations. This was followed by Tehran’s inclusion in the Brics bloc. 

These are not military pacts, but they create something perhaps more enduring: a framework for permanent consultation and strategic alignment.

Last year, Chinese, Russian and Iranian diplomats met in Beijing and agreed to “strengthen coordination” within international organizations such as Brics and the SCO. This institutional embrace means that any aggression against Iran is now implicitly an issue for the world's most powerful counterweights to US hegemony. 

While China avoids direct confrontation, it has not shied away from visible military cooperation. 

Earlier this month, Russia, China and Iran deployed naval vessels for joint security exercises in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. A Russian presidential aide framed these drills in the context of building a “multipolar world order in the oceans” to counter western hegemony.

More tangibly, news has emerged of significant defense cooperation. Middle East Eye reported last year that Iran had received Chinese-made surface-to-air missile batteries to rebuild its air defense capabilities, part of an oil-for-weapons deal that allowed Tehran to bypass US sanctions. 

Some reports have also suggested that Iran may receive advanced J-20 fifth-generation fighter jets, J-10C aircraft, and HQ-9 air defense systems, although there has been no official confirmation.

The symbolism is as striking as the substance. During Iran’s Air Force Day celebrations this month, a Chinese military attache presented a model of the J-20 stealth fighter to an Iranian air force commander - a gesture widely interpreted as signalling a new chapter in defence engagement between the two nations.

Perhaps China’s most consequential support remains invisible on the battlefield, but visible in Iran's national accounts. Despite US sanctions and pressure, China remains Iran’s top energy partner, with approximately 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports now directed to Chinese buyers

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China’s Growing Armada Of Spy Satellites Is Pushing Space Force To Go On The Offensive

China’s Growing Armada Of Spy Satellites Is Pushing Space Force To Go On The Offensive

Joseph Trevithick

A top U.S. Space Force general sees a clear need to be able to attack threats in space, not just to protect friendly satellites, but to challenge China’s dramatically expanded surveillance capabilities in orbit. Hundreds of satellites give the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) immense capacity to track and target American forces. The main Space Force unit charged with the “orbital warfare” mission is now exploring new ways to maneuver using an experimental satellite, which could lead to future offensive and defensive capabilities.

Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, head of what is now called U.S. Space Force Combat Forces Command (CFC), talked about what will be required to provide “space superiority” in the future at a roundtable, at which TWZwas in attendance, on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) annual Warfare Symposium yesterday. The Space Force redesignated its Space Operations Command (SpOC) as CFC last November, specifically to put more emphasis on its warfighting functions. U.S. military officials have been stressing that space is now a warfighting domain where active conflict could occur for years now. This, in turn, has also led to increasingly open discussions about new anti-satellite capabilities.

“Protective measures on satellites is just like thinking about protective measures on aircraft, okay? And we’re working through that,” Gagnon said in response to a question from TWZ‘s Howard Altman about how his command is responding to threats to U.S. assets in orbit. “I won’t provide specifics, because I want those protective measures to work, right? I don’t want to tell Beijing and Moscow what I’ve done.”

Maneuvering satellites away from threats is known to be a central aspectof the Space Force’s current “protect and defend” concepts of operations. Significant investments are also being made now to develop ways to expand those capabilities, which we will come back to later on.

Deploying new distributed and proliferated constellations with large numbers of smaller satellites to create targeting challenges for opponents, as well as to help reduce the impacts if some satellites are lost, has been another major focus area. The U.S. military is heavily reliant on space-based capabilities for strategic early warning, intelligence gathering, communications and data-sharing, navigation and weapons guidance, and more.

“But protecting and defending satellites can’t simply be done by protect and defend. You can’t run away from a bully forever. Sometimes you got to turn around and punch,” Gagnon continued. “So protect and defend, although necessary is insufficient to deliver space control. We also need, as part of our joint force, the ability to attack.”

He cited two core reasons as driving this demand for offensive capabilities. One was to improve the ability of friendly assets in space to defend themselves. The other is China.

What “[China’s] President Xi [Jinping] has decided to do is build the second-best remote sensing architecture in the world from outer space, and that’s now what they have,” Gagnon said. “So when 2013 started, and he came to power, he had less than 100 satellites that were the total of what China had in outer space. They have about 1,900 today.

Over 500 of those satellites are remote sensing satellites, which are purposely designed and networked to track mobile forces such as U.S. carriers, destroyers, and cruisers in the Pacific, as well as aircraft that deploy around the Pacific. Those have been built with a purpose. The purpose is to cue their long-range fire weapons.”

Concerns about the extent to which China can now track U.S. force movements from space, and then use that information to target them, are not new, as TWZ has explored in the past. In 2022, the Pentagon had assessed that “the PLA [Chinese People’s Liberation Army] owns and operates about half of the world’s [space-based] ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] systems.”

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When Your Vacuum Is Watching You: The Hidden Dangers Of The Smart-Home Explosion

When Your Vacuum Is Watching You: The Hidden Dangers Of The Smart-Home Explosion

PNW STAFF

The promise of the modern smart home sounds irresistible: lights that anticipate your mood, thermostats that learn your habits, cameras that guard your family, and robots that quietly clean your floors while you sleep. But beneath that glossy vision lies a growing and deeply unsettling reality--our homes, once our most private sanctuaries, are quietly transforming into networks of microphones, cameras, sensors, and cloud connections that can be accessed, exploited, or exposed in ways most people barely understand.

A recent incident involving a software engineer illustrates just how fragile this digital fortress really is. While experimenting with his own robot vacuum, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to reverse-engineer how the device communicated with the servers of DJI. What he discovered should alarm anyone with a smart device in their living room. 

The same credentials that allowed him to access his own vacuum also opened the door to live camera feeds, audio recordings, maps, and system data from nearly 7,000 other machines spread across 24 countries. In other words, a single security flaw effectively created a global surveillance network inside people's homes--one that neither they nor the manufacturer realized existed.

The company told Popular Science the issue has since been fixed. But the deeper concern remains unresolved: if one engineer can stumble into that level of access by accident, what could a malicious actor accomplish intentionally?

Cybersecurity experts have warned for years that internet-connected household devices are prime targets for hackers, spies, and data brokers. Unlike laptops or smartphones, many smart appliances are built with convenience--not security--as the primary design goal. They often ship with weak protections, rarely receive updates, and rely heavily on remote servers. Yet they operate in the most intimate corners of daily life: bedrooms, kitchens, children's playrooms.

And the risks are not hypothetical. Earlier this month, users of Ring cameras flooded social media after a company advertisement promoting a pet-finding feature was interpreted by critics as hinting at broader neighborhood surveillance capabilities. Around the same time, reports that Google was able to retrieve footage from a smart doorbell camera to assist in a criminal investigation--even after the owner believed it had been deleted--sparked renewed debate about who truly controls the data collected inside private homes.

To be clear, law enforcement access to digital evidence can help solve crimes. But the controversy highlights a troubling truth: many consumers don't fully grasp where their data lives, how long it is stored, or who can access it. The convenience of cloud-connected devices often comes at the cost of surrendering control.

Lawmakers in the United States have repeatedly raised alarms about potential national-security risks tied to foreign-manufactured smart technology, particularly from companies based in China. While concrete public evidence is often limited or classified, bipartisan concern has still been strong enough to justify restrictions or bans on certain products. Critics argue these warnings can be politically motivated; supporters counter that the stakes--mass surveillance, espionage, infrastructure vulnerabilities--are simply too high to ignore.

What makes the situation even more concerning is the direction the market is heading. According to Parks Associates, as far back as 2020, 54 million American households already had at least one smart home device installed. Surveys consistently show that once consumers adopt one, they tend to add more. Smart speakers lead to smart locks. Smart locks lead to cameras. Cameras lead to robot assistants. The ecosystem expands until a home becomes less a private dwelling and more a fully instrumented data environment.

Ironically, the very features that make smart devices attractive also make them dangerous. Remote access means convenience--but also vulnerability. Voice control means ease--but also constant listening. AI automation means efficiency--but also data collection on a scale few users comprehend. Each new device is another door into the home network, another possible exploit point, another stream of personal information leaving the house and traveling who knows where.

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Israel Launches Wave Of Strikes On Lebanon In Precursor To Potential Iran War

Israel Launches Wave Of Strikes On Lebanon In Precursor To Potential Iran War

TYLER DURDEN

Some analysts fear Israel is testing out a precursor for another multi-front war as the US appears poised to attack Iran. Technically a ceasefire has been in effect in southern Lebanon, but the IDF military has been testing - or more like blowing straight past - these truce barriers.

The Israeli Army carried out at least eight airstrikes in eastern Lebanon on Thursday, focusing on the Baalbek area. Multiple buildings were hit, with casualty figures not initially confirmed.

Lebanon's Health Ministry at one point specified that a "16-year-old Syrian boy was killed," according to the National News Agency. There were reports of dozens more wounded and injured.

The deceased was identified as Hussein Mohsen al-Khalaf, who died in a strike on Kfar Dan near Baalbek, L'Orient also reported.

The IDF claimed the targets belonged to Hezbollah's "elite Radwan Force" and were used for weapons storage and training. But as has been the pattern with these types of sporadic brief attacks, it provided no evidence for the claim.

Israel further said the sites violated the "ceasefire understandings" and posed a threat to Israel, after widespread allegations the fresh attacks constitute a severe breach the ceasefire in force between the two countries.

However, Middle East media reports have cited more than 1,000 strikes inside Lebanon by Israeli forces, killing hundreds, since the ceasefire took effect.

Israel has intensified attacks in recent weeks, citing the prospect of a US-Iran war. Israeli officials have warned Lebanon that civilian sites will be targeted if Hezbollah joins such a conflict. Hezbollah has long been a main proxy arm of Tehran's, but also acts in its own interests as a guarantor of Lebanon's Shia population.

So these deadly new assaults do appear to represent a kind of pre-Iran war anti-Hezbollah action. Israel has already over the past two years decimated Hezbollah's top leadership, and could now be looking for an excuse to finish the job.

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‘Open war’ between Pakistan and Afghanistan:

‘Open war’ between Pakistan and Afghanistan: What we know | RT India Outlook

RT

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has made an open declaration of war against former ally Afghanistan, its western neighbor that has resisted NATO occupation for years, and has sought to drag its archrival India into an escalating conflict.

Islamabad said the latest escalation of violence between the estranged neighbors was triggered after Afghan Taliban forces opened fire on its border positions late Thursday, killing two Pakistani soldiers and wounding three others.

During the NATO occupation of its western neighbor, Pakistan had a complex relationship with Afghanistan, serving as a vital logistics hub for Western forces while simultaneously providing sanctuary and support to the Taliban insurgency. Ties strained after the Taliban took over and Islamabad alleged Kabul was harboring Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

What is the balance of power between Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Militarily, Pakistan has an overwhelming superiority over war-ravaged Afghanistan. According to an NDTV report, Pakistan’s armed forces have  660,000 active personnel. This includes 560,000 army personnel, 70,000 in the air force, and 30,000 naval staff.

The same source says Afghanistan’s Taliban administration has an estimated 172,000 fighters.

Open war, hidden hostilities 

Pakistan’s defense minister has termed the situation an open war. Media reports said multiple explosions have rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul, and at least three other provinces.

Khawaja Asif has also tried to drag India into the escalating hostilities, saying the Taliban regime has converted Afghanistan into a colony of New Delhi. India has in the past rejected similar allegations as unfounded and baseless and is yet to respond to the latest charge.  

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that some Pakistani fighter jets are still patrolling inside Afghan airspace. Media outlets have reported shelling from both sides at the key Torkham crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Have casualties been reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Islamabad launched Operation Ghazab Lil Haq (‘Wrath of Justice’) early on Friday. Residents in Kabul have told media outlets they heard multiple explosions. The exact locations of the blasts are not known.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has alleged that Pakistani forces carried out airstrikes in Kandahar and in the southeastern province of Paktia, the Associated Press reported.

The ruling Taliban initially said there were no casualties and has vowed to respond militarily to Pakistan’s strikes, its spokesperson was quoted as saying by Al Arabiya.

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