INSS Report Reveals Chinese Universities Arming Iran
The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) released a report exposing how Beijing systematically transfers weapons technology to Tehran through academic channels, undermining Western sanctions
In a new report released by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) on Monday, findings reveal that China is providing Iran with advanced military technology to build missiles aimed at Israel through a network of academic collaborations that systematically circumvent Western sanctions, exposing a direct pipeline from Chinese defense laboratories to Iranian weapons factories.
The research also documents 753 joint publications between China’s military-linked “Seven Sons of National Defense“ universities and Iranian institutions controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). At least 15 papers provide detailed technical specifications for missile propulsion systems, nuclear reactor components, submarine stealth technology, and cyber warfare capabilities, technologies Iran is actively deploying against Israel and Western interests.
This academic pipeline has already produced lethal results. European intelligence confirms Iran received 2,000 tons of missile fuel components from China since September 2025, enough to manufacture approximately 500 ballistic missiles capable of striking Israeli cities.
From Research Papers to Rocket Attacks
The connection between academic collaboration and operational weapons systems is documented and deadly. Joint research published by Beijing Institute of Technology and Iran’s University of Mazandaran in 2023 detailed methods to enhance ammonium perchlorate, the critical oxidizer in solid rocket fuel used in Iran’s ballistic missiles.
Months later, in April 2025, an explosion killed multiple personnel at an IRGC missile production facility in Bandar Abbas. The blast was directly attributed to mishandling Chinese-supplied ammonium perchlorate, the exact compound studied in the joint research papers. Iran immediately ordered additional shipments from China to replenish its missile production stocks.
In June 2025, Israeli forces targeted Imam Hossein University in airstrikes, destroying laboratories where IRGC scientists collaborated with Chinese researchers on nuclear and missile technologies. The facility was a key node in the academic weapons network.
Systematic Sanctions Evasion
The academic collaboration represents a direct assault on Western non-proliferation strategy. For decades, the United States and European allies have imposed export controls preventing Iran from acquiring advanced military technology. China has now created a workaround: research collaborations that appear as legitimate academic exchange but function as systematic technology transfer for weapons development.
The 2021 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Beijing and Tehran formalized this arrangement with $400 billion in pledged Chinese investment. While economic provisions attracted media attention, the agreement’s military technology cooperation provisions, now documented in this research, pose the greater strategic threat.
Joint publications surged dramatically after the 2021 agreement, peaking in 2022 with concentrated focus on aerospace, missile guidance systems, and precision strike technologies.
The Technology Transfer Network
Chinese institutions leading the collaboration read like a directory of Beijing’s military-industrial complex. Harbin Institute of Technology (39% of joint publications) conducts advanced research in aerospace and hypersonic technologies. Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (19%) develops aircraft, missiles, and drone technologies for China’s military. Northwestern Polytechnical University (15%) produces stealth and precision guidance systems.
Their Iranian partners include universities directly controlled by the IRGC and Ministry of Defense: University of Tehran, Islamic Azad University, Amirkabir University, and Sharif University of Technology. These institutions don’t merely conduct theoretical research, they develop operational weapons systems for Iran’s military.
Approximately 70 Iranian weapons scientists are now embedded within Chinese defense universities, receiving advanced training in hypersonic propulsion, advanced composites for missile construction, and cyber warfare, knowledge they return to Iran’s weapons programs.
The Emerging Adversary Axis
This China-Iran weapons collaboration exists within a broader strategic alignment. The report situates the partnership within the “CRINK axis,” China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, four adversaries coordinating technology transfers, weapons sales, and military strategy against the West.
Technologies and tactics developed through Chinese-Iranian collaboration don’t remain confined to the Middle East. Knowledge transfers across the axis, meaning advances in Iranian missile technology could enhance North Korean capabilities threatening South Korea and Japan, or inform Chinese systems targeting Taiwan and US forces in the Pacific.
Western Academic Vulnerability
The implications extend to American and European universities. Western universities have become exploited bridges for military technology transfer to Iran through Chinese intermediaries.
Major American institutions maintain active collaborations with China’s military-linked Seven Sons universities, where American taxpayers fund Chinese nationals in sensitive research fields, creating what Congressional investigators describe as systematic access to cutting-edge defense-relevant knowledge. These academic channels enable technology laundering: research on explosives, drone networks, and weapons systems developed at Western institutions reaches Chinese defense laboratories, which then share findings with partners including Iran’s IRGC through the joint publications documented in this report.
With European Union projects similarly exposed for funding Chinese military-linked research, the West faces a strategic vulnerability: its own academic openness weaponized against it through a Beijing-Tehran axis that transforms university partnerships into arms development pipelines.
A Direct Threat Requiring Immediate Response
For Israel and Western allies, this represents an urgent strategic challenge. Iran is acquiring sophisticated military capabilities through academic channels specifically designed to evade detection and countermeasures.
The report recommends immediate policy responses: enhanced screening of academic partnerships, restrictions on Western collaboration with Chinese defense institutions, and coordinated allied efforts to close the academic weapons pipeline before it further erodes Western military advantages that have protected democratic nations for generations.
Very important article!
Well, this is what the western leaders have been afraid of, imo, which is a wider confrontation. This is what the idiot jihadists are hoping for, because they want to destroy Israel and the US.
This is what Israel has been warning us about, that they are the vanguard against enemies of democracy. The Russians and Chinese are a backstory in this conflict.
This is why appeasement is a mistake , history repeating.