Editor's note: During Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's landmark visit to China, CMG's Wang Guan catches up with him for a rare interview in this Leaders Talk exclusive. Raisi calls his visit a signal that Iran and China will intensify their cooperation, which goes back to the ancient Silk Road era. Besides joining the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Iran supports President Xi Jinping's Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative for all-round development based on fairness and justice. He also talks about how the "incredibly cruel" U.S.-led sanctions have failed to effect a regime change and instead, made Iran self-reliant in COVID-19 vaccines, helped by cooperation with China. As for the broken-down nuclear deal, Raisi says it was the U.S. that violated the pact by abandoning negotiations despite the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly saying Iran's nuclear activities were peaceful.