A very interesting piece published by Javan, a newspaper closely associated with conservative and IRGC-linked circles in Iran, argues that many Iranian intellectuals and reformists still view China through an excessively Westernized lens and remain psychologically unable to accept the emergence of a non-Western center of global power.
《日报》发表了一篇非常有趣的文章，该报与伊朗保守派及革命卫队相关圈子关系密切，指出许多伊朗知识分子和改革派仍通过过度西化的视角看待中国，心理上仍无法接受非西方全球权力中心的出现。
- What makes the article notable is that it is not really about China alone. It reflects a much broader post-war shift inside parts of the Iranian establishment.
- 这篇文章值得注意的是，它并不只是关于中国。这反映了战后伊朗建制内部更广泛的转变。
- The underlying message is essentially this: the old assumption that the West is the natural center of the world is collapsing, while many Iranian elites are mentally still stuck inside that framework.
- 其基本信息是：西方是世界自然中心的旧假设正在崩溃，而许多伊朗精英在心理上仍困于这一框架内。
- The piece openly revives the old Islamic Republic theme of gharbzadegi (“westoxication”), but updates it for the multipolar era. The argument is no longer simply that the West is morally decadent, but that continuing to think exclusively in Western terms means misunderstanding where global economic and strategic power is moving.
- 该作品公开复兴了伊斯兰共和国旧主题“gharbzadegi”（“westoxication”），但为多极时代进行了更新。论点不再仅仅是西方道德堕落，而是继续仅用西方思维意味着误解全球经济和战略力量的流动方向。
- This is also deeply connected to the post-war environment. Tehran increasingly sees Europe as strategically irrelevant, the United States as structurally hostile, and China as economically indispensable. In that context, articles like this also serve a domestic political function: preparing Iranian public opinion for a future in which the country becomes far more integrated with Asian economic and geopolitical structures.
- 这也与战后环境密切相关。德黑兰越来越认为欧洲在战略上无关紧要，美国在结构上具有敌意，而中国则在经济上不可或缺。在这样的背景下，类似文章也具有国内政治功能：为伊朗公众舆论做好准备，让国家未来更加融入亚洲经济和地缘政治结构。
- In my view the most interesting part is probably psychological. Many Iranians genuinely admire Western technology, universities, lifestyle and culture in ways that do not naturally extend to China or Russia. The article directly attacks that mindset and presents it almost as a civilizational bias rather than a rational geopolitical assessment.
- 在我看来，最有趣的部分可能是心理层面的。许多伊朗人真心钦佩西方的技术、大学、生活方式和文化，这种敬仰并不自然地延伸到中国或俄罗斯。文章直接攻击这种思维方式，几乎将其呈现为文明偏见，而非理性的地缘政治评估。
- This is why the tone feels much deeper than a simple pro-China editorial. It reads more like an attempt to redefine Iran’s intellectual and geopolitical identity for a post-Western order.
- 这就是为什么语气比单纯的亲中社论更深刻。这更像是试图重新定义伊朗在后西方秩序中的知识和地缘政治身份。
- What we may be witnessing is the gradual emergence of “Islamic Republic 3.0.”
- 我们可能正在目睹“伊斯兰共和国3.0”的逐步出现。
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The Iranian intellectuals' confrontation and hostility towards even "a reasonable and balanced cooperation" between Iran and China has been one of the darkest parts of their dark minds for at least the past two decades. Look at the pages of reformist newspapers during their lifetime to see what completely unreasonable and incomprehensible hatred they displayed for China. The Iranian intellectual accepts the West wholeheartedly, without criticism, and from the depths of his soul, but he does not digest Eastern civilization - from Iranian civilization itself to Chinese civilization. Both for almost the same reason! Ancient Iranian civilization, because its historical half is Islamic and not "Western", and Chinese civilization too, because it is Eastern and not Western, even when it is such a source of regret for the West.
The US president attacked Iran with several goals and in the hope of several achievements. One of them was to glare at China after defeating Iran and obtaining Iranian oil. When the four-day war did not end, he postponed the meeting with Xi. When the war had passed seventy days, he finally agreed to the meeting, with folded hands, like a complete loser. When he returned yesterday, he did not get anything from China. The Chinese are not Arab sheikhs affiliated with Zionism who will give him a gold-plated plane worth several hundred million dollars or give their land to the US. On the contrary, news came that Trump has said that he wants to allow the Chinese to buy American farmland and allow 500,000 Chinese students to come to America!
American analysts consider China's silence on most issues related to Iran or China's official position in not accepting America's anti-Iran demands to be significant. American journalists wrote about Xi's office staff welcoming Trump at the airport and his even colder send-off that "it became clear who the superpower is"!
In his joint speech with Trump, Xi first made a dry compliment and then trampled on America. He compared 1.4 billion Chinese to 300 million Americans, and China’s 5,000-year-old civilization to the 250th anniversary of America’s “independence.” Finally, he said that the Chinese people were “modernizing in a high-quality way” and that the American people were looking for jobs! “We are advancing China’s modernization in all areas through high-quality development, and 300 million American people are reviving the spirit of patriotism, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”
Understanding why America is in decline is not a matter of sloganeering by the likes of me and us. The raw, unbiased data shows that in 1990, America was the leading exporter to 175 of the world’s 195 countries, a reach that is virtually unrivaled. In the same year, China was the leading exporter to only eight countries! In 2000, America was the leading exporter to 155 countries, and China was the leading exporter to 15 countries. In 2010, China was the leading exporter to 55 countries, compared to America’s leading exporter to 85 countries; and by 2024, there will be another complete reversal, with China becoming the leading exporter to 125 countries, and America to just 35 countries! America’s power in trade influence, the backbone of its soft and hard hegemony, is rapidly eroding, while China has woven a web of economic dependencies around the world in less than a generation.
Iranian intellectuals sometimes turn left and sometimes right, depending on their personal tastes and interests! With this spirit, they have an ideological view of the new economic reality of the world. If America becomes a country of the 99 percent against the 1 percent, how good! And if China speeds up the train of speed and progress for the majority of its people and brings the poverty and hunger of a few decades ago to a modern state whose quality is a source of regret for Europe and America, it is Eastern tyranny or new imperialism!
China has, in fact, acted even ahead of many traditional allies in key strategic positions for Iran’s national interests. I personally heard the reformist Foreign Minister of the 12th government tell an aggressive Chinese official, “If it weren’t for China, our resistance would have collapsed!” I have said before that our resistance will not collapse with anything and that is due to Iran’s independence, which is not even completely dependent on China, but that Foreign Minister had to say this in order to better understand that anti-Chinese person.
If the Iranian intellectual is more concerned about national interests, the country's independence, and reducing dependence on the world - East and West - than anything else, he will have to rethink his anti-China stance. Looking at it with previous Western judgments puts Iran in a position to miss the train that its neighbors and many countries in the world have boarded; neighbors who themselves have signed a thirty-year agreement with China!
China undoubtedly has its flaws and political and social costs, but the era of “either America or China” is over. Yes, you cannot be “Westernized” with China! Throw that reprehensible and ideological Westernization into the dustbin of history. The world is moving towards multipolar and multilayered networks; and whoever locks himself in one of these poles in advance is a loser. By winning the third war, Iran has disrupted the frozen world order in your mind. If you are not thinking of yourself, think of your children, who will soon find nothing in America with which to revive the sense of Westernization of their fathers!
| Edito
