The Iran Deal | China & Iran | China's Middle East Strategy | The New Silk Road | World Trade War

[Music] this week on the new silk road i travel to a country on the cusp of change the united states calls it an axis of evil but china sees it as an important ally on its new silk road iranians are now embracing all things chinese [Music] and its economy is racing ahead as it rebuilds the ancient silk road with china this week i'm going to iran to investigate how china's silk road will impact this country so so google iran and this is the impression you get not exactly an optimistic impression but what i've seen here feels like quite the opposite that's really good thank you very much the people i've met here are just so friendly all right see you guys bye iran is a dynamic country it has a huge population of over 80 million and it's a fast growing economy with some fashionable and fun people now iran is an important place on china's new silk road and i'm here to find out why but before i dive into the political issues i'm told there is a place i must see to understand the two countries deep ties four hours drive to the south of tehran is espahan the ancient capital of persia [Music] isfahan was an important trading point on the old silk road 400 years ago traders from europe china and the middle east would meet here to do business imagine traders from china walking for months in the hot unforgiving deserts and when they arrived they would see this jeweled buildings and lush gardens what a sight it must have been for them [Music] esvahan was larger than london more cosmopolitan than paris and grander by some accounts than even istanbul elegant bridges crossed its river polo players dashed across what was then the world's largest square and hundreds of domes and minarets punctuated the skyline the persian court was the center of a vast empire that was comprised of modern-day iran armenia azerbaijan iraq and also parts of afghanistan pakistan and turkey zara malik is my guide this place is magnificent can you tell me a little bit about it oh sure this is a woman's square and it's fun and there are two moss there is one palace and there is one imperial bazaar it's huge there must have been many people working to build it up yes a lot of workers uh iranians and even they're very chinese chinese workers yes it is said that about 300 workers from china to iran so even 400 years ago there were chinese workers here yes xiao was first brought some chinese artists from china to iran and ordered them to teach iranians how to make some artistic things like porcelain porcelain dishes i see well let's check out the rest of the complex okay sure this is the shah's palace where people from europe india and china came to pay their respects oh wow this is beautiful oh this is the stronghold that uh people from different nations gathered here every picture refers to some culture or some nation for example this picture uh from china so we can see two chinese people in this picture i can see that so how long then or how early did the chinese first arrive to iran oh it's a live history they have relations from two centuries before christ so 200 bc yes 200 so that's over 2 000 years yeah that's a long time for us to line time iran and china were the two great civilizations that flourished on the ancient silk road persian kings sent envoys to china and chinese emperors sent gifts and workers chinese iranian diplomatic ties spring from deep historical wells today at every opportunity officials from both countries invoke this ancient relationship and it's not empty talk both countries want to recreate the past and remake the silk road not just reminisce about it as the european empires rose in the 19th century esvahan once considered the center of the world faded from memory and in the 20th century iran went from globalization to isolation the dramatic events leading to this began in 1978 [Music] millions spilled onto the streets to demand that the shah stepped down ordinary iranians felt they had little reason to be grateful to the shah who was ruler of iran while many iranians struggled with poverty the shah lived in luxury i'm visiting the palace that used to be his home the scale of royal wealth is stunningly [Music] apparent but while he languished in luxury anger mounted in the streets the shop not only was he despotic and his whole family was stealing the wealth of the country but even more problematic than that was the sheer amount of corruption but also iran's lack of independence many iranians felt that the shah was a person who abided by the demands of the united states and that he was unable to make any independent policies for the country so on the whole iran was a country that was basically an american camp he was very corrupt very backward [Music] in autumn 1978 protests against the shah had grown to such proportions that martial law was declared in most cities within a year the monarchy was toppled the shah's antagonists holy man ayatollah khomeini inherited iran's [Music] revolution [Music] islamic law was implemented in what was now the islamic republic of iran it became overnight a theocracy and if you're a woman you had to wear the full burqa or being a risk being literally punished on the street beaten by the police the religious police who were roving around in bands almost overnight the west's most steadfast ally in the muslim world had become a violent and volatile enemy where mass crowds raised their fists to chant death to america in this video clip the crowds are seen marching towards the u.s embassy to protest western companies especially those in the oil and gas sector were kicked out of iran this was the starting point of decades of conflict between the west and iran after the september 11 bombings iran was famously labeled an axis of evil by george bush since then iran has been seen by many at best as an enigmatic religious country at worse as a supporter of terrorism and an international pariah all that changed in 2016. decades of sanctions were lifted in january that year after a u.n watchdog committee confirmed that iran had complied with the deal to stop developing nuclear weapons that very same month chinese president xi jinping paid a visit presidency was the first head of state to visit iran after sanctions were lifted the two leaders announced the signing of 17 major deals that would boost bilateral trade 10-fold to an annual 600 billion u.s dollars in the next decade iranian ayatollah ali khamenei said iranians never trusted the western world but are happy working with so-called more independent nations like china the revival of the ancient silk road is one of the key agreements is [Music] the first item on the silk road agenda is a rail link from iwo china to tehran that is a 3200 kilometer route crossing five countries kyrgyzstan kazakhstan uzbekistan and turkmenistan from tehran the iron silk road will join iran's east-west network leading to turkey and onwards to europe one month after the announcement was made the first freight train from china arrived in tehran not only is it staggering in its efficiency but there are high hopes that it will develop iran into a regional transit center i'm on china's silk road in the capital of iran and i've come to the operen cargo train station the main train station in the country a lone disused passenger train sits rusting in the tracks a few cargo containers lie waiting but all this is about to change iran has signed up to be a part of china's new silk road and this place is going to get a lot busier february 2016 a freight train from iwu city in east china made its maiden trip to tehran the train carrying 32 containers arrived in tehran after a 14 day journey this is the iron silk road of the 21st century china's astonishing rail master plan is already changing global logistic flows since the announcement of the new silk road policy in 2013 the chinese have spent over 250 billion us dollars on railway tracks the first line to open connected chongqing and china to kazakhstan russia eastern europe and poland before arriving in deutsche germany each year more lines were added for cargo trains connecting china to london china to spain china to pakistan china to laos thailand and malaysia and now china to iran what's glaring is the fact that this is the only link on china's iron silk road that connects to the middle east china has friendly relations with all the middle eastern countries who have also signed up for the belton road but to iran china seems exceptionally friendly how will china's silk road impact iran iran is connected to different countries to afghanistan pakistan turkey iraq and from south even to india therefore it will impact iran if we can complement if we can have a more comprehensive network we believe that one birth one road would add to iranian network and this is very important this is a very positive impact and how important is all of this for iran's overall economic plan it's very important because china is considered as one of the major players of the world today therefore no one can ignore the economic relation between any country and china we are not accepted trans shipment for the transfer of cargo is an important component of the silk road this global logistics industry is worth billions and iran wants a share of the pie what was your trans shipment income in 2016 would be about 600 million use dollars in the last year and then what about in the next 10 years what is a projected income once the silk road is fully integrated it is expected that we reach to two billion years per year per year we believe in the next three years not too long we will be connected by rails and roads to all neighboring countries and through those countries also we would be able to be connected to chinese railway to national networks to european networks analysts have pointed out that iran is an important link on china's silk road master plan [Music] from a geographic point of view iran is the ultimate eurasian crossroads linking the middle east caucasus central asia indian subcontinent and persian gulf it is located between three seas caspian persian gulf and seo viman it is relatively close to the mediterranean and europe and on the doorstep of asia iran has an unbeatable geographic advantage but from a political point of view investment in iran is a risky venture the threat of sanctions hasn't gone away but all this has not deterred china first as clear indication of their commitment china will finance the electrification of a 926 kilometer railroad from tehran to mashad with a 1.5 billion u.s dollar loan from a chinese bank besides the railway china also signed other deals that would boost bilateral trade 10-fold to an annual 600 billion u.s dollars in the next decade it is a long list including agreements on rail nuclear energy oil extraction mining and a range of other projects to build partnership on the new silk road the avalanche of chinese investments has created interest in all things chinese from mandarin classes to wushu [Music] sports education cultural events and media this is all part of china's soft power push in the world the committee in beijing responsible for winning hearts and minds is a powerful organization near the top echelon of china's political structure sports is one of the many facets of its work why do you like it what do you have any friends from china do you keep in touch sports is one aspect of winning hearts and minds here is another the confucius institute named after the famous peace-loving chinese sage i'm going to check out one of the chinese classes and this should be the one hello yeah hi can i join you yeah yeah okay thank you thank you m like the british council or the german gupta institutes the confucius institutes are designed to teach the language and promote china and chinese values it certainly seems to be working this charm offensive extends way beyond iran china has now established 500 confucius institutes at a university level and over 1 000 confucius schools at a secondary level [Music] teachers from china are being sent to over 120 countries serving more than a million students how long have you been here why did you want to teach here in tehran [Music] for countries along the new silk road the confucius institutes have an especially urgent task to facilitate chinese business interests the task at hand is critical china and iran have pledged to boost bilateral trade tenfold which means many more mandarin students are in demand and most of all for this [Music] iran is a major power in the middle east it is one of the most populous states in the region with 80 million people and it has one of the largest economies despite stringent sanctions for many years the sanctions that lasted till 2016 were authorized by the united nations to stop iran from developing nuclear weapons the impact of sanctions were severe for the people of iran when europe and the u.s banned transactions with iranian banks and banned the import of iranian oil it caused estimated losses of four to eight billion us dollars every month but there was one major ally that saw them through those difficult years china for centuries this bazaar in iran has been hawking iranian goods but one significant change occurred during the sanction years the arrival of goods from china as other countries stopped trading with iran china imports soared since 2005 trade has increased fourfold to over 50 billion u.s dollars now so all these products here then are the vast majority made in china yes most of them are made in china and some of them are made in iran but the raw materials have been improved imported from foreign countries in china from china turkey and other countries but most of them are imported from china as a whole they are cheap and their quality is not very hard it's mostly low or medium quality okay and are these popular then among the iranians because of the low salary of the people and low income of the people they are let's say enforced and they are obliged to do to buy these commodities because they don't have enough money to buy expensive western communities ansari fard has been monitoring iranian trade with china for the last 20 years he explains why the reason for china's dominance goes beyond just price to get around the sanctions china simply bought oil from iran and paid in barter chinese goods rather than cash so how did china come to play such an important role in iran's economy because the chinese are easy going in providing commodities and getting money oil instead of them to exchange all the commodities and to have easy-going banking system event the blocking of the money and blocking the commodities would not happen with the chinese but the western countries it usually happens and their money is blocked and the commodity is blocked so all sorts of difficulties you have with the western countries but the chinese know everything is easy going so while the us and european countries couldn't really do business with iran due to the sanction china was still able to go right ahead yes definitely definitely so it it sounds like there was a bartering system then right yes that's right where china would buy iranian oil um iran couldn't accept money from china but they could accept goods in return definitely that's why the trade between iran iran and china has been vastly the uh and broadening in every day and every year so the sanctions that were supposed to punish iran instead pushed iran closer to china and it isn't just cheap chinese goods that have come to dominate the bazaars chinese machines also prevail in iran's transportation network the buses in tehran are all chinese chinese car brands dominate the road and tehran's metro system was built from scratch with chinese capital and chinese engineers the train cars that run on it are of course chinese inside iran's modern malls china's brands are also at the forefront plenty of huawei products are sold here in different stores [Music] apple has no official distributorship but it hasn't stopped enterprising businessmen from selling the product yet iranian buyers prefer huawei to apple see you have a couple of brands here apple huawei which is the most popular brand in your store first toy and the last app okay why is the huawei brand really popular because they have best camera and best selfie camera and their prices price is cheaper than the other brand another chinese brand zte also has a big presence in iran and it isn't just about selling phones huawei and zte are helping iran to transit into a new economy driven by technology what they're doing is putting in the infrastructure the backbone infrastructure that is not only important to the internet but also to the coming new economy if you want to have internet banking if you want to have e-commerce e-pay all of these things you need this kind of infrastructure to support it so that's why it's so important to iran and wow zte and huawei will continue to be part of it it's not about selling a handset that is just a peripheral part it may make money but the main part of this is this backbone infrastructure helping iran to build its i.t infrastructure has caused a storm of controversy in the united states zte was slapped with a 1.2 billion us dollar fine in the united states for violating u.s sanctions huawei faces a similar charge and could be fined up to 2 billion in the u.s if they don't pay up they will not be allowed to operate in the u.s chinese political analysts i spoke to in beijing were outraged do you think the u.s is justified in taking that approach china and this is our and long-term herd of politics against any countries in the using sanction because of you know to interfere into other countries internal affairs and the huawei and the chinese company doing this kind of a business in iran was very lawful very legal americans are using their domestic policies apply you know to the international affairs so china and the starting i think we are totally against it from that is it is unlawful it is illegal the huawei and zte examples have not deterred other chinese companies the chinese embassy in tehran says there are over 100 large chinese companies here i tried calling these companies but nobody wants to be interviewed so i'm meeting the man in iran with the closest ties to china mr hariri has been working with the chinese for over 30 years now that is so it sounds like they're in every single sector of your how important are the chinese companies to the overall economy of iran now i've contacted over 10 chinese companies but nobody wants to be interviewed why is that happen um politics and business are inseparable everywhere as iranian politics continue to dominate international headlines the chinese companies who have invested millions prefer to steer clear of it the chinese operate profitable businesses here but no publicity is wanted because of the political sensitivities as the new silk road pushes ahead how long will it be before the world's two superpowers confront each other over the issue of iran [Music] oil it's the liquid that powers our factories our cars and all our cities and this valuable commodity is cheaper than water in iran to see the oil fields i'm traveling to north asian after a two-hour drive from the awes airport through dusty towns and arid fields i'm finally here [Music] this place is the source of the country's wealth iran is home to the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil and second biggest deposits of natural gas its energy assets are staggering billions of dollars worth of oil lies beneath these fields but international sanctions have strangled iran's energy sector for decades many oil fields here were using old machines and rusty infrastructure they needed investment and no surprise who came to their aid china stepped in to fill the void created by western sanctions for example this facility was constructed by the china national petroleum company in partnership with the iranians now the chinese run this place alongside the iranians they form half the workforce at the site [Music] they've even brought chefs from china to prepare the meals stir fry tofu even dumplings all of this to make the workers more comfortable during their stay here [Music] so how long have you been here and how do you find living here how often do you go back because i'm sure you must miss your family i also wanted to talk to the chinese and iranian workers but they are not allowed to speak to the media that authority rests with the big boss whose office is back in the capital city is china your number one partner of course we have a very good relation with the with our partners chinese partners and we greatly appreciate their contributions to our oil industry during the hard time of sanctions what are the challenges of the oil industry here as you know behold the four world's fourth largest proved the crude oil reserves and also second largest natural gas reserves due to that we have a significant potential for further discoveries in some unsure and offshore fields and for those we need to have a new investments for the expansion of these reservoirs are you hoping to do more business with the west yes why not we our strategy is to expand and to have a good relation and good corporations good contribution with all of the countries in the world in europe also we are interested to make use of their up-to-date and new technologies in the developments of the fields but there are powerful forces in iran opposing closer ties with the west and you can find one indication of that sentiment here friday prayers in tehran it's a major event here the friday prayers are not only attended by thousands but is also broadcasted across the country it's not just a time for religious reflection it's also a time for political discussion this week ahmed khatami one of the 14 men in the council of experts talks about the dismantling of the iranian nuclear deal by the united states the council of experts are a group of men who advise the supreme ayatollah who is the ultimate decision maker in iranian politics [Music] um is oh this is the first time i'm witnessing a religious ceremony that is so politically charged as the prayers end i ask people on the streets what they think about the world's two superpowers so what are your views on the united states [Music] we heard from the younger men what about you for the older generations what are your thoughts yeah you can use parsley that's fine but what is your view of the humans [Music] oh hello so would you mind telling me about your views on the united states most people unfortunately think it's like a really devilish country or trump tries to like murder everyone every muslim every iranian but what i see is a really strong country which is actually having a great atmosphere for musicians for doctors for engineers for many other works and jobs i like it and what about china how would you describe your thoughts or feelings on china what i've heard all these years is that they are really hard-working people and this is what iranians love the most about china i'm on the side of peace i really love seeing countries presidents together and talking about peace and doing stuff together i'm that kind of person i i hate war there are mainly two versions of iran in international opinion one the chinese version that iran is a misunderstood nation full of economic potential another the american version that iran is a dangerous country intent on violence the iranian dictatorship's aggression continues to this day the regime remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and provides assistance to al-qaeda the taliban hezbollah moss and other terrorist networks it develops deploys and proliferates missiles and it launches cyber attacks against our critical infrastructure financial system and military the united states is far from the only target of the iranian dictatorship's long campaign of bloodshed is iran an axis of evil iran is a very ordinary country iran is a country which pursues policies which are rational its people conduct their lives in a very ordinary fashion as do people in other countries the problem that iran has with the united states is its hegemony its support for countries that promote extremism such as wahhabism its support for countries that support apartheid like israel if we take a careful look it is the united states that has been spreading evil now president trump calls iran a dangerous terrorist state what are your thoughts on this i think mr trump is mistaking and also is lying why he's lying as you know iran's supreme leader ayatollah khamenei has mentioned on several occasions and many times that iran is a peaceful country and iran is not after the nuclear arms and it is prohibited religiously to have nuclear arms and also chemical arms how would you respond to the united states claims that iran is a dangerous country very simple when you are talking about dangerous it means that violating rules and laws creating trouble initiating world intervening the efforts of the others establishing dual standards who is danger iran or united states as the iranian usa conflict continues to play out china's new silk road in iran is going full steam ahead in culture [Music] business infrastructure and politics just as china and iran were great partners on the ancient silk road they share a common vision for the prosperity of the new silk road [Music] you

Channel: Moconomy

Views: 193,986

Rating: 4.7341852 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, full documentaries, economy, china, iran, china iran, china vs iran, china & iran, china and iran, iran china, IRAN AND CHINA, the new silk road, silk road, new silk road, china iran deal, china in focus, iran china deal, iran vs usa, iran news, iran international, china iran oil, china iran silk road, china iran documentary, iran china relationship, economy of china, economy of iran, china iran alliance, economy of china documentary

Id: FI5JFyfYtpE

Length: 46min 37sec (2797 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Skibbadadeebop]

Going off social media, there seems to be resistance/anger from locals against the Islamic Republic for "selling out natural resources".