Bill Clinton, in return for a large campaign contribution/ bribe allowed the export of encrypted missile guidance systems to the Chinese. This ultimately resulted in the US Navy’s presence in the Persian Gulf untenable. The Chinese developed state of the art stealthy shore to ship missiles which they needed to control the Straits of Taiwan. These missiles were sold to the Iranians who used them to fortify the shores of the Persian Gulf. The big blue water capital ships of the US Navy operating in the narrow ,shallow gulf would be very vulnerable despite their impressive defensive weapons. Those stealthy missiles would have a flight time of less than 30 seconds to target. If fired in conjunction with other less sophisticated ordnance, the US Navy faced a debacle worse than Pearl Harbor in less than 15 minutes. Iran of course would suffer a devastating attack but the damage to the US would be done. The US would then be involved in a bloody long war with no clear strategic advantages for a US “victory”. Obama no doubt decided for many reasons to alter long standing US policy and acquiesced to the bizarre mullahs obtaining nuclear weapons. The Pakistanis quickly assembled nuclear weapons with a far less sophisticated nuclear infrastructure. It didn’t take much convincing to persuade Obama to no longer confront Iran. However it would be short sighted to neglect the role that the Chinese supplied missiles had in the strategic equation.
China’s a big friend of Iran indeed.