China–Iran relations (, ) refer to the bilateral relations between the People's Republic of China and Iran. The relationship between the two civilizations is one of the oldest continuous contacts in history, stretching back more than 2,500 years. Their earliest interactions began when the Achaemenid Empire and the Zhou dynasty had indirect contact in the 6th century BC. The first direct and official contact started between the Parthian Empire and Han dynasty around 200 BC, when the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian encountered the Parthian court. In 115 BC, Emperor Wu of Han, seeking to expand trade—especially in his search for high-quality horse herds—sent envoys with gifts to the court of Mithridates II.Persian merchants became the main carriers of goods and culture across Central Asia, bringing their religions, music, and ideas into China. Ambassadors were exchanged, and Chinese travelers visited Iran regularly. Each side introduced new goods to the other, the most famous of which was Chinese silk. The trade route carrying this precious commodity from China to Europe passed through Iran, becoming known as the Silk Road, with Iran controlling much of the trade that moved silk, metals, glass, and textiles between East and West.
During the Sassanid Empire, royal marriages took place. Several Sassanid kings and nobles married Chinese princesses or women from influential Chinese families to strengthen ties. These unions symbolized the close relationship between the two sides. Persian communities lived in Chinese cities during the Tang dynasty, and after the fall of Sassanid Empire, some Sassanid princes even took refuge in China. Trade also expanded by sea, with Persian sailors linking the Persian Gulf to Chinese ports. In the 13th century during the Mongol era, Iran (under Ilkhanate) and China (under Yuan) were part of a single empire.
In modern times, official diplomatic relations were established in 1937 between the Republic of China and Pahlavi Iran. During the Cold War before the mid-1960s, Iran was generally aligned against the People's Republic of China until both countries' relations with the Soviet Union and the United States shifted. After the Iranian Revolution, China and the U.S. were both distrusted, but subsequent sanctions by the west pushed Iran closer to the east. Cooperation gradually expanded, with China purchasing more than 80 percent of Iran's shipped oil by 2025 and becoming a leading investor in transportation and industrial projects. Relations deepened through long-term economic agreements and China's Belt and Road Initiative, making Iran one of China's most important strategic partners. In 2021, the two nations signed a 25-year cooperation agreement.
History
Achaemenid-Zhou era
There were indirect contact between the two sides in 550-330 BC. The Achaemenid Empire, stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, pushed the Persian frontier close to regions that later connected directly with China. Although no formal diplomatic exchange is recorded between the two sides during this period, trade routes that would later form the Silk Road already existed in primitive form. Goods, ideas, and technologies moved step-by-step through Central Asian intermediaries, linking the two civilizations long before they physically met. Chinese texts reference Iran/Persia as Bosi. In essence, the relationship was not one of direct diplomacy but of early trans-Eurasian connectivity, laying the foundation for the deeper relations that would flourish later.
Han-Parthian era The Han dynasty diplomat and explorer Zhang Qian, who visited neighboring Bactria and Sogdiana in 126 BCE, made the first known Chinese report on Parthia. In his accounts, Parthia is named "Ānxí" (), a transliteration of "Arsacid", the name of the Parthian dynasty. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthia as an advanced urban civilization, whose development he equates to those of Dayuan (in Ferghana) and Daxia (in Bactria).
"Anxi is situated several thousand li west of the region of the Great Yuezhi (in Transoxonia). The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. They have walled cities like the people of Dayuan (Ferghana), the region contains several hundred cities of various sizes. The coins of the country are made of silver and bear the face of the King. When the King dies, the currency is immediately changed and new coins issued with the face of his successor. The people keep records by writing on horizontal strips of leather. To the west lies Tiaozi (Mesopotamia) and to the north Yancai (Alans) and Lixuan (Hyrcania)." (Shiji, 123, Zhang Qian quote, trans. Burton Watson).安息在大月氏西可數千里。其俗土著，耕田，田稻麥，蒲陶酒。城邑如大宛。其屬小大數百城，地方數千里，最為大國。臨媯水，有市，民商賈用車及船，行旁國或數千里。以銀為錢，錢如其王面，王死輒更錢，效王面焉。畫革旁行以為書記。其西則條枝，北有奄蔡、黎軒。
Following Zhang Qian's embassy and report, the Han conquered Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions, thereby opening the Silk Road and clashing with Persia sphere of influence (as some satraps were part of the conflict). Commercial relations between China, Central Asia, and Parthia flourished, as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BCE: "The largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members… In the course of one year, anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent out." (Shiji, trans. Burton Watson).The Parthians were, apparently, very intent on maintaining good relations with China and also sent their own embassies, starting around 110 BC: "When the Han envoy first visited the Kingdom of Anxi (Parthia), the King of Anxi dispatched a party of 20,000 horsemen to meet them on the eastern border of the Kingdom. When the Han envoys set out again to return to China, the King of Anxi dispatched envoys of his own to accompany them. The Emperor was delighted at this." (Shiji, 123, trans. Burton Watson).
Parthians also played a role in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism from Central Asia to China. An Shih Kao, a Parthian nobleman and Buddhist missionary, went to the Chinese capital Luoyang in 148 CE, where he established temples and became the first man to translate Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. The Persianized kingdom of Kushan became the crossroads for Sino-Indian Buddhist transmissions, with many Iranians translating Sanskrit sutras into Chinese.
Sassanid era
Like their predecessors the Parthians, the Sassanian Empire maintained active foreign relations with China. Ambassadors from Iran frequently traveled to China, with Chinese documents recording the reception of thirteen Sassanian embassies. Commercially, land and sea trade with China was important to both the Sassanian and Chinese Empires. Large numbers of Sassanian coins have been found in southern China, confirming the existence of bilateral maritime trade.
On various occasions, Sassanian kings sent their most talented Persian musicians and dancers to the Chinese imperial court. Both empires benefited from trade along the Silk Road, and shared a common interest in preserving and protecting that trade. They cooperated in guarding the trade routes through central Asia, and both built outposts in border areas to keep caravans safe from nomadic tribes and bandits.
In 547, during the Liang dynasty in China, a Persian embassy paid tribute to the Liang. Amber was recorded as originating from Iran by the Liang Shu (Book of Liang).
There are records of several joint Sassanian and Chinese efforts against their common Hephtalite enemy. Following encroachments by the nomadic Turkic tribes on states in Central Asia, an apparent collaboration between Chinese and Sassanian forces repelled the Turkic advances. Documents from Mount Mogh also note the presence of a Chinese general in the service of the king of Sogdiana at the time of the Arab incursion.
The last members of the Sassanian Empire's royal family fled to Tang China. Following the conquest of Iran by Muslim Arabs, Peroz III, the son of Yazdegerd III, escaped, along with a few Persian nobles, and took refuge in the Chinese imperial court.A History of Chinese civilization, Jacques Gernet. Both Peroz and his son Narsieh (Chinese neh-shie) were given high titles at the Tang court. In 661, Peroz III was appointed Governor of Persia. At least on two occasions, the last possibly in 670, Chinese troops were sent with Peroz to help him against the Arabs to restore him to the Sassanian throne, with mixed results. Narsieh later attained the position of commander of the Chinese imperial guards and his descendants lived in China as respected princes.
Caliphate era and Islamic golden age The Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656) sent an embassy to the Tang court in Chang'an.
During the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana, The Umayyad commander, Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered the Bukharan territories of Numushkat and Ramithna in 707 CE (88 AH). But shortly after, he faced a coalition force of roughly 200,000 soldiers from Ferghana and Sogdiana, led by Kur Maghayun, who was the Chinese emperor's nephew. A heavy battle occurred. Qutayba managed to defeat the coalition army in combat, driving its commander to retreat, and then led his army back to his base at Merv.
The Umayyad Caliphate in 715 AD deposed Ikhshid, the king the Fergana Valley, and installed a new king Alutar on the throne. The deposed king fled to Kucha (seat of Anxi Protectorate), and sought Chinese intervention. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Fergana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab occupation force at Namangan and reinstalled Ikhshid on the throne.*Bai, Shouyi et al. (2003). A History of Chinese Muslim (Vol.2). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. ., pp. 235-236
After the Islamic conquest, Iran continued to flourish during the Islamic Golden Age, and its relations with China continued. In 751, the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled Iran, was in dispute with the Tang dynasty of China over the control of the Syr Darya region during the Battle of Talas. The commander of the Abbasid army was Zayid ibn Salih, a Persian, and the commanders of the Tang army were Gao Xianzhi, a Goguryo Korean, alongside Li Siye and Duan Xiushi, both Chinese. After the Abbasids won the battle, relations improved, and there were no more conflicts between China and the Caliphate.
The Abbasid Caliphate continued to send embassies to China and 13 diplomatic gifts were recorded between 752 and 798.
During the An Lushan rebellion, Tian Shengong massacred foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants in the Yangzhou massacre (760). Tian, who was defecting to the Tang dynasty, sought recognition from the Tang court and presented the conflict as one between the rebel Hu of Yan and the Han Chinese Tang state. He killed foreigners as a demonstration of loyalty to the Tang and to secure recognition as a regional warlord without surrendering territory. The victims also included members of other foreign Hu barbarian ethnicities, as well whose ethnic groups were not specified. The violence was directed against foreigners more broadly, rather than only Arabs and Persians.[Old Tang History "至揚州，大掠百姓商人資產，郡內比屋發掘略遍，商胡波斯被殺者數千人" "商胡大食, 波斯等商旅死者數千人波斯等商旅死者數千人." The Tang dynasty recovered its power decades after the An Lushan rebellion and was still able to launch offensive conquests and campaigns like its destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia in 840–847. The Abbasids continued diplomatic relations with China in the tenth century.
Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and polo were exported to the Tang.
Mongol Yuan