China and Qatar are strengthening bilateral ties: What that really means

China has called Qatar an “important strategic partner” in the Middle East and the Gulf, and the two sides have agreed to expand cooperation in energy, investment and advanced technologies.

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But it’s clear the continuing US-Israeli war on Iran, and ongoing Qatari efforts to mediate between Tehran and Washington, were central to discussions.

Beijing pledged to increase communication and coordination with Doha to help restore regional peace and stability. Qatar has told China it would prioritise its energy supply despite the difficulties.

The disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has raised the stakes for both sides.

Qatar is one of the world’s biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG), while China is the world’s largest importer of crude oil. Both have a significant interest in restoring stability to the strait, through which around one-fifth of global oil and LNG normally passes.

4 million tonnes in 2025. QatarEnergy has signed 27-year LNG supply agreements with Chinese state-owned energy giants CNPC and Sinopec, which have also taken stakes in Qatar’s massive North Field gas expansion.

Overlapping interests, different approaches.

But despite these shared interests, Doha and Beijing have different ways of dealing with Tehran.

China has repeatedly voiced support for Qatar’s mediation efforts but has largely refrained from direct criticism of Tehran’s attacks or its disruption of the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s also consistently placed primary blame for the conflict on the US and Israel, a conflict Chinese officials say “never should have happened”.

Beijing is arguably Tehran’s most important economic and diplomatic partner. China has for years been the largest buyer of its oil and continues to oppose unilateral sanctions against it.

During talks with Al Thani, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated calls for a diplomatic solution, saying “pressure exerted through military means is not a solution; dialogue and negotiations are the only viable path”.

For its part, Qatar has publicly condemned Tehran for attacks on its own territory and on neighbouring Gulf states. It has grown increasingly frustrated with failed or stalled attempts to resolve the crisis, while continuing to facilitate dialogue.

From Doha’s perspective, closer coordination with Beijing potentially brings another influential player into its efforts to end the conflict, one with unusually strong economic and political ties to Tehran.

China is also aware of Qatar’s longstanding security and military partnership with Washington, Beijing’s biggest strategic rival.

Qatar hosts Al Udeid, the largest US military base in the Middle East. On March 3, Iran fired two ballistic missiles at Qatar. One was intercepted while the other struck Al Udeid, causing no casualties.

This prompted Doha to call for even stronger security ties with Washington.

Still, China has no interest in replacing the US as a security guarantor, says Zoon Ahmed Khan, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing.

The question is how much of its own influence Beijing is prepared to use when it comes to Iran. China has so far shown little appetite for using its leverage to exert significant pressure on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Qatari prime minister’s two-day visit was, of course, about more than Iran. If anything, the conflict has increased the incentive for Doha and Beijing to expand their relationship towards what Qatar has described as “broader horizons”.

China’s Premier Li Qiang called for deeper cooperation in traditional and renewable energy, infrastructure, artificial intelligence and finance, while Al Thani singled out high technology and advanced manufacturing.

The visit underlines a partnership that is becoming broader economically, and potentially more important diplomatically, as the Iran war tests both countries’ ability to protect the interests that bind them together.

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