Editorial | Strikes on Iran may complicate US-China ties

The abiding concern with violent conflict in the Middle East is regional escalation and heightened geopolitical tensions. This fear is very real after the US-Israeli air strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The strikes have triggered missile attacks on US bases in the region and neighbouring countries, roiled markets, pushed up the price of oil and grounded thousands of passenger flights.

The air strikes on Iran are an unacceptable violation of an independent nation’s sovereignty and the United Nations charter. China has called for an immediate halt to military operations. Both sides should heed the call and head back to the negotiating table.

The joint operation came eight months after US President Donald Trump claimed air strikes had destroyed Iran’s nuclear operations, and two months after the military raid that captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and led to intervention in the country’s oil industry. This from a US president who pledged to voters in 2024 that he would end wars, not start them. The lack of UN authorisation looks like a return to power politics.

Trump has called for regime change, without explaining why this should end any differently from attempts in Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this century. That said, Iran has, at times, been its own worst enemy, most recently during a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters that caused international revulsion and led to Trump’s warning against mass executions. The regime had done little to revive a nuclear deal that Trump pulled out of during his first term in office, even though it was a solution supported by Europe.

The attack may complicate China-US political relations, which have been warming ahead of Trump’s expected visit to Beijing in about a month. But it is unlikely to affect the mainland’s, or Hong Kong’s, economy significantly, including the oil shipments that help sustain China’s reserves. It should not distract from economic development under the 15th five-year plan to be endorsed by the annual parliamentary “two sessions”, or from Hong Kong’s focus on aligning with the plan under the budget unveiled by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po last week.