World order 'crumbling into disarray': Xi Jinping as Iran war drags on

By Daniel Basteiro

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping touted shared principles with Spain to counter global disorder during an official visit by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which comes after both sides have criticised US-Israeli attacks on Iran and called for peace.  

“The international order is crumbling into disarray,” Xi told Sánchez on Tuesday in Beijing. “Both China and Spain are nations of principle and integrity,” Xi said, adding that the two sides should “enhance communication, consolidate mutual trust, and cooperate closely to resist any regression toward the law of the jungle.”

 

The meeting between Sánchez and Xi is their fourth in just over three years as Spain positions itself as one of China’s closest friends in Europe. Spain has been among the European countries most strongly opposed to the US-Israeli war in Iran, which Sánchez has described as “illegal.”  

The country has closed its airspace to US warplanes involved in the conflict and is barring Washington from using its two military bases on Spanish territory for that purpose. At the same time, Spain has condemned Iran’s response to the US and Israeli strikes and warned of regional destabilization. 

 

 

China has also criticised the military action against Iran and warned it risks plunging West Asia into deeper instability. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged the international community to step up efforts to promote peace talks between Iran and the US, warning that the current truce remains fragile and must be preserved.

 

During opening remarks at the meeting on Tuesday, Sanchez said he was in Beijing so the two countries can “contribute to providing solutions to the various trade tensions, the difficulties and geopolitical complexities of today’s world, the wars, and the environmental and social challenges affecting the world.”

 

Ahead of the meeting, Sánchez urged China to leverage its global influence to help bring the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine to an end.

 

“China can do more — for example, by demanding, as it is already doing, that international law be upheld and that conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine come to an end,” Sánchez said during a speech at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday.

 

Spain views China as a stabilising force in the international order, which Sánchez has said should be reshaped to give greater weight to Beijing and other underrepresented countries.

 

“The West must give up part of its representation quotas in favor of global stability and the trust of countries in the Global South,” Sánchez said at Tsinghua University.

 

When both leaders met in 2025, Xi called to build bilateral ties with “more strategic determination and more vitality” amid “changes and chaos in the international situation.” Back then, Xi also called for a joint effort to oppose “isolationism, unilateralism and decoupling.”