A monarchist must be quite old. This is a typical boomer sentiments and I can tell you that American and other boomer populations think the same. They're old, can't change
The other problem is that if you want the perception of Chinese products to improve, you actually need to sell them. After the Huawei affair, Chinese private companies have pulled out of the Iranian market because they fear US sanctions and they want to send their children to study in the west and not be abducted. In the AliExpress app you can't even select Iran as a shipping address. China has for many years refused to sell advanced weapons like planes to Iran, hoping to sell them to US allies instead. Even though Iran used to be a big customer of Chinese arms exports during and after the Iraqi invasion
This monarchist is an educated professional in his late 40's or early 50's. I suspect he is more taken with the idea of the monarchy and opposition to the religious fundamentalism as he would have been barely a child when the shah was overthrown. I don't know his specific personal views on Chinese goods but he does seem to keep up to date with regards to things like AI and tech, and thinks deindustrialization was a big mistake made by countries. He seems to almost favor autarky as a general principle at least with regards to critical economic sectors. He was commenting on what he supposedly understands to be the general Iranian and Middle Eastern view of Chinese made goods, which I think may be based on his contacts and family still in the region, as cheap rubbish that doesn't last long or which underperforms even if all objective tests show otherwise.
