According to "Nuclear Jihadist", a biography of AQ Khan, some Chinese warhead designs and other bits of technology from China ended up in the hands of the Iranians, some of which passed through AQ Khan. So China has made an intellectual contribution to Iran's program although it exist in a grey area. It certainly wasn't entirely intentional, but the full path and content of the information is not publicly known, so we don't know how much the Chinese knew about what information was leaking out of China and Pakistan to Iran. At the end of the day, some Chinese tech did end up in Iran. That's all I'm saying.
More importantly, China blocked sanctions against Iran earlier when they would have had a better chance of changing Iran's behavior. China may or may not be willing to back sanctions now, but either way sanctions aren't going to get Iran to give up it's nuclear program.
They're still worth a try though, for use within the context of wider negotiations, and to show other countries that proliferation has consequences. Sadly I don't have any illusions that the Western nations will be able to come up with any sort of coherent, satisfactory response to Iran's program. And only a fool would believe that what's happened to Iran will discourage other nations from developing nukes.
Lastly, don't be so trusting of governments. It's not a good idea to believe that "They know so much more than us, so therefore they must be making right decisions". If I were criticizing the US government for making short-sighted decisions, I doubt you would disagree with me. People at the top decision making positions in governments may have access to much more information than we do, but they're not much smarter. At least not much smarter than the smart posters on this board. Historical events are caused as much by mistakes and incompetence and institutional inertia as they are by wise grand strategy.
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