Beijing
\nChina\u2019s foreign ministry accused the media of publishing \u201cfalse information\u201d on Friday following a report that said the country\u2019s top semiconductor firm has sent chipmaking tools to Iran.
\nThe report, which cited information from two unidentified senior officials in US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, said contract chipmaker SMIC \u201cbegan sending the tools to Iran roughly a year ago\u201d.
\nA US official was quoted in the report as saying they had \u201cno reason to believe that any of this has stopped\u201d.
\nChina is a key partner of Iran but has not announced military assistance to Tehran in the war triggered by US-Israeli strikes on February 28, repeatedly calling for a ceasefire.
\nThe chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), did not respond to an AFP request for comment on Friday.
\nAsked about the report at a regular news conference in Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he was \u201cnot familiar with the situation\u201d.
\n\u201cWhat I can tell you is that recently, some media have been keen on releasing some news that seems right but instead is wrong,\u201d Lin said.
\nHe added that, \u201cafter verification\u201d, such reports were \u201call\u201d found to be \u201cfalse information\u201d but did not elaborate.
\nChina condemned the US-Israeli killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khameini but has also said it \u201cdoes not go along\u201d with Tehran\u2019s strikes on Gulf states hosting US bases.
\nBeijing\u2019s top diplomat Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in a phone call this week that he hoped \u201call parties can seize every opportunity and window for peace and start the peace talks process\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing China\u2019s foreign ministry accused the media of publishing \u201cfalse information\u201d on Friday following a report that said the country\u2019s top semiconductor firm has sent chipmaking tools to Iran. The report, which cited information from two unidentified senior officials in US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, said contract chipmaker SMIC \u201cbegan sending the tools to Iran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-538655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n