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U.S. intelligence agencies detected signs that China was considering giving Iran advanced radar systems after the U.S.-Israel-led war on Iran began last month, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The officials said analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s military intelligence arm, assessed that Beijing was weighing whether to provide Tehran with X-band radar systems.
According to the officials, the systems would significantly improve Iran’s ability to detect and track incoming threats such as low-flying drones and cruise missiles and could help protect its air defense systems from advanced strikes.
It remains unclear whether China ultimately moved forward with any transfer, but the assessment highlighted U.S. concern that the war risked drawing in global powers willing to support Iran short of direct military involvement.
The intelligence assessments came days after the war began, when American agencies detected signs that the conflict could widen beyond the immediate battlefield.
According to the report, analysts saw Russia and China as seeking to support Iran in ways that could blunt U.S.-Israeli military operations.
The report said there were also separate reports that Russia had shared intelligence with Iran on American military positions across the Middle East.
That transfer of information from Moscow to Tehran had previously been reported by CBS News.
U.S. officials said Beijing had considered supplying Iran with X-band radar systems, while two officials also said U.S. intelligence indicated China had weighed transferring air defense systems to Iran, potentially through third countries to hide direct involvement.
The report added that CNN had previously said the intelligence community found China was preparing to deliver shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems, known as MANPADs, to Iran.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a spy satellite secretly bought from a Chinese company Earth Eye Co. to target U.S. bases in the Middle East.
Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said intelligence assessments indicate Tehran has previously used satellite imagery provided by China, including during the current conflict involving Israel and U.S. forces.
The officials said they could not confirm whether that imagery came from Earth Eye Co.
A Pentagon report on China’s military released in December said that, as of 2024, commercial satellite companies based in China had taken part in business exchanges with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, an unclassified survey of global security risks compiled by the intelligence community, said China is rapidly outpacing other countries in its development of space-based capabilities.
“China has eclipsed Russia as the key U.S. competitor in space. Beijing's rapid deployment of space capabilities positions it to use space to advance its foreign policy goals, challenge U.S. military and technological superiority in space, and project power on a global scale,” the report said.
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The Defense Intelligence Agency did not respond to a request for comment, while the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described reports that China may be providing Iran with new air defense systems as “significant.”
“They try to hide themselves. China says, well, this is their private sector. We all know there is no such thing as a true private sector in China. Every company in China has to have its first loyalty to the Communist Party,” Warner said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that President Donald Trump had directly addressed the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“President Trump has a very strong and direct relationship with President Xi, and they've communicated on that, and China has assured us that that indeed is not going to happen,” Hegseth said.
Trump is expected to visit China next month in a summit shaped by several overlapping crises and strategic interests.
In an interview aired Wednesday on the Fox Business Network, Trump said he had sent a letter to Xi asking him not to give Iran weapons. He did not say when the letters were exchanged.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to answer questions about the letters mentioned by Trump, saying China’s position on Iran is “open and aboveboard.”
“We uphold an objective and impartial stance and have made efforts to promote peace talks,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement. “We never engage in actions that escalate conflicts.”
Last week, Trump threatened countries with an immediate 50% tariff if they supplied Iran with weapons.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Wednesday that media reports about Beijing supplying Tehran with weapons were “purely fabricated” and warned that any tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on that basis would be met with countermeasures.
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