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Trump Dismisses Report of Chinese Entities Providing Intelligence to Iran

morning · · thread: US and Iran Pause Military Strikes Amid Continued Drone Attacks on Saudi Oil Sites

8 sources across 7 countries

Who reported this

  • The Times of Israel Israel · Centre · Seth Klarman (majority backer)
  • The Jerusalem Post Israel · Centre-right · Mirkaei Tikshoret (Eli Azur)
  • The Daily Star Bangladesh · Centre · Mediaworld Ltd
  • Deutsche Welle Germany · Centre · Public · German federal public-law corporation
  • The Indian Express India · Centre · Indian Express Group (Goenka family)
  • Tempo English Indonesia · Centre-left · PT Tempo Inti Media
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation
  • Al-Monitor United States · Centre · Jamal Daniel

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.

President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed a report stating that Chinese entities provided Iran with satellite images of a military base in Jordan prior to an attack in July that killed three US troops. The report, originally published by the Wall Street Journal and citing unnamed US officials, did not allege direct involvement by the government in Beijing and did not identify the specific Chinese entities involved. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning from a trip to Ireland, Trump equated the surveillance activities of the two nations. He stated that China basically does what the US does and noted that when people say China spies on the US, he agrees and adds that the US spies on them too.

Trump did not directly answer whether he would raise the issue during an expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24, though China has not yet officially confirmed the visit. Trump reiterated that he maintains a good relationship with Xi, stating that both leaders have behaved reasonably well. Some reports noted that the US had previously sanctioned three Chinese satellite companies in May for working with Iranian military entities.

Outlets with a center lean generally described Trump's comments as consistent with administration efforts to play down tensions between Washington and Beijing. Outlets with a center-left lean framed the remarks as a strategy to keep tensions low specifically ahead of the upcoming meeting with President Xi.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
Framed the dismissal as a tactical move to maintain low tensions specifically before the meeting with Xi Jinping.
Centre
Framed the event as part of a broader administration effort to minimize tensions with China.
Centre-right
Presented the facts of the dismissal and the upcoming diplomatic meeting without adding specific framing on administration strategy.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.