China is expanding its relationships with Middle Eastern nations through infrastructure investments as well as cooperation on technology, security and other issues.
China was visited by five officials representing oil-rich Arab monarchies to discuss cooperation on energy, and infrastructure. Turkey’s top diplomat arrived in Beijing to discuss the possibilities for economic cooperation. Iran’s foreign ministry demanded progress on the promised $400 million investment.
China is deepening its relationship with Washington in the region, even as it becomes fatigued from decades of wars and turmoils in the Middle East.
China is nowhere close to the United States’ extensive involvement in Middle East. States are increasingly looking at China not only to purchase their oil, but also to invest their infrastructure and collaborate on security and technology. This trend could accelerate if the United States pulls back.
Beijing sees the recent turmoils in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan as a reason to strengthen its desire to maintain stable ties with the region. This outreach is in response to the American army’s withdrawal of Afghanistan after twenty years and the official conclusion of its combat mission against Iraq. This along with Biden’s frequent mention of China as its top security priority has left many Middle East partners believing that Washington is more focused elsewhere.
Beijing has welcomed the opportunity for greater influence. Arab leaders have appreciated that China, who claims the virtue of “noninterference”, in the affairs and domestic politics of other countries, will not interfere or send its troops to overthrow unfriendly dictators. Both can count on the other side to overlook its human-rights violations.
Gedaliah Beforeman, head for the Asia Policy Program in the Abba Ema Institute of International Diplomaty at Reichman University said that “there is a belief in the region the United States are actively on the path out, and this is an opportunity to China.”
China’s interest has always been grounded in its desire for oil. China buys almost half its crude oil directly from Arab states with Saudi Arabia at the top. This is a growing economy that has the second largest economy in the world.
China has recently made investments in the region’s critical infrastructure, and made deals to provide military technology and telecommunications services to other countries in the area.
Chinese state-backed enterprises are looking at investments in Chabahar port, Iran. They have also helped finance an Omani industrial park, built and managed a container terminal in Abu Dhabi.
These moves show Beijing’s belief that the Middle East is vital to its Belt and Road Initiative.
China hopes to connect supply chains and markets across the Indian Ocean, Eurasia and China, according to Jonathan Fulton, a senior nonresident fellow for Middle East program at the Atlantic Council.
China has not confronted America in its business-focused deals in the region. But China promotes itself as a partner alternative for countries that question Washington’s model for development or its history involving military and political interventions.
“At the time when United States face ups and Downs in its internal and external policies, these states feel that China is both the most secure country and the most reliable,” Li Guofu (a researcher at China Institute of International Studies), which is overseen over by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
China’s main interests are in the area are economic. However, China’s growing ties have brought them political dividends. Middle Eastern countries are silent about matters such as Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s political freedoms, and its menacing moves in Taiwan.
Unsurprisingly, most of the Muslim majority countries have not publicly condemned China’s forced interment and indoctrination practices against its Muslim Uyghur people. This is a violation of international law, which has been deemed genocide by the United States. Some Arab states have sent Uyghurs back to China from where they were worried about being tortured or even killed.