China Begins Conducting Massive Military Movements Inside Iran

Joseph Chalfant | January 20, 2026 8:30 AM

China has reportedly landed more than a dozen military cargo planes in the Islamic Republic of Iran within the last three days.

According to Iranian and Israeli media, roughly 16 Chinese military cargo aircraft have landed in Iran over the past 56 hours.

If accurate, this would represent the largest single Chinese military airlift to Iran in such a compressed timeframe.
— WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@WarMonitor3) January 19, 2026

Numerous open-source intelligence accounts have reported that 16 Chinese Y-20 cargo jets, comparable to the U.S. C-17 Globemaster, have landed in Iran within a 56 hour timespan, marking the largest such movement for the Chinese.

The potential increase in military support comes as the mass killing of anti-regime protesters has nearly reached 20,000 in some estimates. Iranian officials have confirmed the deaths of at least 5,000, according to a Reuters report.

Genocide Under Digital Darkness

January 17, 2026 | Source: The Sunday Times

Based on data from 8 specialized eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments across Iran, at least 16,500–18,000 people have been killed and 330,000–360,000 injured, including children and pregnant… pic.twitter.com/wFJU56r1JY
— Amir (@4mirbasiri) January 18, 2026

As the death toll has continued to mount, Trump has called for the ousting of the Islamic regime, saying that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was “a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” in an interview with Politico.