# Is China ‘winning’ the Iran war? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/is-china-winning-the-iran-war Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/is-china-winning-the-iran-war.md Podcast: [The Global Story](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479) Published: 2026-04-28T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8mhf Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0ngzy2p.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-global-story-6677479/episodes/is-china-winning-the-iran-war Duration seconds: 1631 ## Resource As the US-Israel war with Iran reaches a diplomatic stalemate - one idea seems to be taking hold: that China is the real winner. Some have argued that the US’s biggest rival is quietly boosting its international standing, leverage and reputation as a reliable partner. Yet beneath the surface the economic situation in China looks far less triumphant. We speak to the BBC China Correspondent Laura Bicker who has been reporting from inside China’s factories and trading hubs to explore whether the potential political gains China may be accruing from the Iran war are being offset by the acute economic cost - and what this means for China’s long-term geopolitical ambitions. Producers: Aron Keller and Sam Chantarasak Digital producer: Matt Pintus Sound engineer: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins (Photo: Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, 14 February, 2023. Credit: WANA/Reuters) ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-global-story-6677479/episodes/is-china-winning-the-iran-war/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/is-china-winning-the-iran-war.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.