Narratives will change as the fighting between Iran and Israel continues, but one conclusion is already evident: China, Iran's long-time backer, is a victim of the fighting. That is a quick reversal of fortunes. Only last year, the Chinese looked ascendant in the region. Pictured: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov (L) and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazeem Gharibabadi meet on March 14, 2025 in Beijing. (Photo by Getty Images)

Israeli air and drone strikes during the early hours of June 13th crippled Iran -- and severely set back Tehran's regional ambitions. The Israel Defense Forces hit nuclear weapons development facilities and ballistic missile sites, and killed senior military officers, including Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the armed forces chief of staff, and Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iranian media announced the death of Ali Shamkhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser.

Tehran said that Israel's action was a "declaration of war." This war is continuing, and Iran has struck back with ballistic missile and drone attacks.

Narratives will change as the fighting continues, but one conclusion is already evident: China, Iran's long-time backer, is a victim of the fighting. That is a quick reversal of fortunes. Only last year, the Chinese looked ascendant in the region.

"China is closely following Israel's attacks on Iran and is deeply concerned about the potential grave consequences of the operations," the Chinese foreign ministry stated on X a few hours after the initial attacks. "China opposes actions that violate Iran's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and opposes moves that escalate tensions or enlarge conflicts."

"China stands ready to play a constructive role in helping ease the situation," it added.

Beijing may stand ready, but, apart from the Iranian regime itself, the region is not looking for Chinese assistance.

For instance, Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states are, as academic and analyst Christopher Balding put it, "quietly happy" that Israel has set back Iran in general and its nuclear weapons program in particular. "There were some very, very relieved people in the Gulf as the sun rose this morning," Jonathan Bass told Gatestone the day after Israel's initial attack.

As Bass, who travels extensively in the region for Argent LNG points out, the losses sustained by the Iranian military and the IRGC give the Sunni Muslim states fewer reasons to cooperate with Tehran. "The Saudis were not particularly happy with Chinese attempts to forge a relationship between them and the Iranians," Bass said. "The March 2023 deal was not popular in the Kingdom."

Bass was referring to the China-brokered pact that led long-time enemies Riyadh and Tehran to reestablish diplomatic relations.

"The Saudis," Bass pointed out, "know that China had armed their enemy Iran with nukes and lesser weapons and fully backed the Houthis, who have been waging war on the Kingdom for years."

Yes, the Chinese regime did all that, and the Kingdom has been looking for payback for a long time.

Beijing may also suffer another setback. China has been taking more than 90% of Iran's exports of crude oil in recent years. Israeli strikes on June 14th hit a processing plant in Iran's South Pars gas field, the world's largest. There are reports that Israel also attacked Iran's Abadan oil refinery. If the strikes on Iranian energy sites continue, Beijing could soon be scrambling for hydrocarbons.

"As Iran's largest purchaser of energy, China stands the most to lose from the potential fall of Iran's theocracy," Brandon Weichert, author of The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy, told this site. "The Chinese state is only as strong as its main energy provider, and that main energy provider, which so far has not been able to counter Israeli strikes, is unlikely to survive this war in its current form."

The possible loss of the Iranian regime reverses two years of fast Chinese progress in the region. "China is the head, Iran is the shoulder, Qatar is the elbow, and the proxies—Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah—are the fingers," Bass notes. "Without the shoulder, the head cannot move either the elbow or the fingers."

The decimation of Iran also sets back China in another crucial part of the region. "With the loss of Syria and Hezbollah, Iran no longer has a command and control center in Damascus, only a two-hour drive from Beirut," Bass points out. "That means China can no longer manipulate events there."

Syria, once a promising target for Chinese domination, is leaving Beijing's sphere of influence. The country's new leader, former militant Ahmed al-Sharaa, is fast moving Syria closer to the United States.

Sharaa has a willing partner: U.S. President Donald J. Trump. While in Saudi Arabia last month, Trump met with Sharaa after announcing that the U.S. would drop its Assad-era sanctions on his country.

China has a Trump problem in the wider region as well. With the exception of Iran, almost everybody, including Iran's partner Qatar, expresses love for the American president. Trump took the Gulf by storm in his three-nation — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — trip in May.

Chinese leaders obviously thought that their backing of Iran would let them ride into control of the region. A proxy war is a sly maneuver when the proxies do well, but it can lead to disaster when the proxies are being ground into the dust.

China's proxies — and China itself — are now being ground into the dust.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.