Will tensions between China and the United States over the conflict in the Middle East escalate?
- According to a British newspaper, Iran used a Chinese spy satellite.
- What do we know about this device? Laura Pouget, LCI journalist, clarifies.
Did China play a role in targeting American interests in the Middle East? According to the Financial Times
(new window), on Wednesday, April 15, Iran used a Chinese spy satellite, the TEE-01B, purchased by the Aerospace Force of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in 2024.
These revelations could increase tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have already escalated in recent days. As Laura Pouget, an LCI journalist, explains, “Iran was able to monitor strategic military sites, including an airbase in Saudi Arabia where several American tankers were hit and damaged in mid-March. It was on the same base that an American Awacs was severely damaged by an Iranian strike on March 27”
. A meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping is scheduled for mid-May in Beijing.
Other military sites and civilian infrastructure in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, or Kuwait, may have been monitored by this Chinese device.
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On LCI, Laura Pouget discusses the capabilities of this Chinese satellite. “The TEE-01B provides images with a resolution of about half a meter, the most advanced Iranian satellite only goes up to five meters. The smaller the resolution, the greater the detail in the image”
, emphasizes the journalist.
