[iran-china] unholy alliance or the lion and dragon dance

Interesting look at the ties between two major nations: For several reasons, none of the other East Asian countries are as close culturally to Iran as China. The two nations have many things in common. Iran and China are two of the world's oldest civilizations. They were both stops on the ancient Silk Road trade route. The Persian Empire, stretching in its heyday from the Indus River in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from the Ural Mountains in the north to Egypt in the south, left undeniable impacts on Chinese civilization. Later the Persian Empire was invaded by Muslim Arabs and the Persian crown prince, Pirooz, then fled to China's western borders, lived and later died there. Islam also made its way to China via Persia. Iran, the Middle Kingdom of West Asia, and China, the Middle Kingdom of East Asia, have been historically symbolized by the lion and the dragon, respectively. Like their communist counterparts in China, the Iranian clerics are confronted by the reality that their ideology is no longer working and that they have no option but to improve the country's national power, which was damaged systematically by wrong policies. Further reading here and here.