US intelligence says Chinese weapons transfers to Iran continue despite Xi's pledge to Trump

US intelligence agencies report that Chinese companies were actively negotiating the shipment of man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) to Iran in April and May 2026, contradicting President Xi Jinping's personal pledge to President Donald Trump on May 15 to halt arms shipments, according to CIA data cited in the report.

Advanced radar systems and spare parts for anti-aircraft missiles were also part of the discussions, with African intermediaries used to obscure the weapons' origin, the intelligence data shows.

President Donald Trump visited Beijing on May 15, 2026, and told Fox News that Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally promised to halt weapons shipments to Iran and help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial shipping. Trump described the exchange in direct terms: "Xi Jinping wanted a deal to happen. And he offered help, saying: 'If I can help in any way, I would like to help.'" The president called Xi's pledge not to supply Iran with military equipment "a very serious statement." No specific monitoring agreements or sanctions were signed.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, by the end of the visit, issued only a statement calling for "the earliest possible achievement of a mutually beneficial peace" — with no mention of arms, monitoring mechanisms, or sanctions, according to Radio Free Europe's Russian Service.

Beyond covert weapons transfers, Beijing has been supplying Tehran with dual-use technologies — components for drone and missile production — that are difficult to trace because of their civilian applications. China has also been confirmed to be providing Iran with intelligence on US troop movements in the region. In late 2024, Iran acquired a Chinese reconnaissance satellite used to track US military concentrations in the Middle East.

Congressional testimony from US intelligence officials in March raised suspicions that Iran had been using access to China's BeiDou satellite navigation system — the American GPS alternative — to coordinate drone and missile strikes on targets across the Middle East. Russia, according to the CIA, has separately been supplying Iran with satellite targeting data, with Moscow aiming to help the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps strike US warships and American military and diplomatic facilities in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated in March that Iran had received "military assistance" from both China and Russia, though he provided no details. According to all available data, no Chinese-made weapons have been deployed on the battlefield against US or Israeli forces since the war began.

IRGC commanders, meanwhile, have been discussing post-war military ties with Beijing, according to Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, speaking to The New York Times: "I hear more and more voices coming from within the IRGC ranks — which has now become the only real power in Iran — openly stating that Tehran's mistake was that it was too long too 'embarrassed' to draw closer to China and Russia, and instead tried to maintain independence."

China remains Iran's largest trading partner, purchasing roughly 12 million barrels per day of Iranian oil in early 2026 — more than three-quarters of Iran's oil exports — at a significant discount due to American sanctions. That commercial relationship, analysts note, makes any clean break from Tehran structurally difficult regardless of what Xi tells visiting American presidents.