1. Is China a non democratic state? What is the outlook of China's foreign policy, in terms of relations with other states. 2. Comparing Iran and...

China’s relations with other states are clearly better than those of Iran.  There are two main reasons for this.

On the one hand, you might think that China’s relations with other states would be worse than Iran’s.  Both countries are nondemocratic, but China is the country that is threatening to become a major world power.  This might frighten the countries that currently hold power and make China’s relations worse. 

But this is not the case. ...

China’s relations with other states are clearly better than those of Iran.  There are two main reasons for this.

On the one hand, you might think that China’s relations with other states would be worse than Iran’s.  Both countries are nondemocratic, but China is the country that is threatening to become a major world power.  This might frighten the countries that currently hold power and make China’s relations worse. 

But this is not the case.  One reason for this is that China is not seen as an imminent military threat to just about anyone in its region.  China has enough power to dominate its region, but it does not have any real reason to want to destabilize any country in its region.  While Iran has potential religious reasons for wanting to weaken Israel as well as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, China has no reason to try to undermine or get militarily involved in countries around it.  This means that China does not have real enemies in its region.  Relatedly, China is allowed by international law to have nuclear weapons.  Iran, by contrast, is not, and its apparent efforts towards developing such weapons have poisoned its relationship with the powers of the world.

A second reason why China has better relations with other countries is the size of its economy.  Everyone knows that China is an important country economically and, therefore, militarily.  Countries can afford to simply treat Iran as a pariah.  They cannot afford to treat China in that way because it is simply too big, powerful, and important.

For these reasons, China has much better relations with other states than Iran does.