Let me get this straight. The Iranians hired a PRC citizen to steal components MADE IN THE PRC (for an American company) and this transaction was arranged in London? But the Chinese company (in China) which was to buy the parts from the American company (which had the parts made in the PRC and exported to the rest of the world presumably which includes the US.) and somehow the Americans think they will stop the transaction by arresting the idiot money man, when the Iranians can still have the parts stolen off the factory floor and smuggled to Pakistan and via short ocean voyage or air flight to Tehran? Or they could go through Kazakhstan and across the Caspian Sea?  

 

Metaphorical banging of head against the wall. That is nonsensical. The Chinese can simply steal out of stored inventory and ship the parts. No-one at MKS would ever really know who did it. That's how screwed up the current trade sanctions scheme actually is and how irrelevant the sanctions actually are. 

 

If the parts were stolen in Chine, it would have been under Chinese jurisdiction. This way, China can wash its hands.

 

@sublimebohemian

 

I might be wrong, but current Chinese policy could be best described as 'take the money and run'. If it is outside of their backyard, they only seem to care about profit. Perhaps they believe they will deal with fallout later, when the time comes, or someone else is going to do it for them.