Thammasat University students interested in China, political science, international relations, diplomacy, peace studies, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 3 December Zoom webinar on China in the Middle East: Trends, Drivers and Implications.
The event, on Tuesday, 3 December at 7pm Bangkok time, is organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies, Loughborough University, the United Kingdom.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of China in the Middle East.
Students are invited to register at this link.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sgNYSKmzQzm8h6FyUtdZ-w#/registration
The event announcement states:
IAS Visiting Fellow Dr. Amrita Jash delivers a seminar on their research –
China’s evolving role in the Middle East is crucial for several reasons. While China’s growing influence in the Middle East is a recent but a significant trend with far-reaching consequences. Especially, against the China-brokered Saudi-Iran peace deal, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the tensions in the Red Sea and growing competition between China and the US, it has become imperative to understand how China is influencing the geopolitical landscape of Middle East.
Once a distant observer, China has emerged as a key player in the region’s political and economic landscape, driven by its economic ambitions and growing global influence. While the region offers China opportunities, it also presents complex challenges. How China navigates these complexities is significant in shaping the future of the Middle East and the global order. The presentation will focus on the evolving nature of China’s engagement with the Middle East, the various dimensions of China’s engagement, and the implications of it.
Dr Amrita Jash is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in Manipal, India.
Earlier this year, an article was posted on The Strategist — The Australian Strategic Policy Institute Blog.
It began:
- China’s growing influence in the Middle East
China’s economic and political engagement in the Middle East has surged over the past decade, particularly in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and amid growing perceptions of the United States’ withdrawal from the region.
China has traditionally tried to maintain a balancing act in the Middle East, developing relationships with all sides while steering clear of the region’s multiple conflicts. With China’s standing strengthening among developing countries, and superpower competition intensifying, it has adopted a more proactive approach to position itself as a potential alternative and a counterbalance to the United States.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), initiated in 2013, has significantly increased China’s involvement in the region and propelled Beijing to become, since 2016, the primary foreign investor there. Initially focused on energy-sector trade and investment, Beijing has broadened the scope of its regional engagement to encompass infrastructure, technologically advanced smart-city projects, innovation hubs and 5G mobile networks.
As Beijing’s economic clout in the Middle East has grown, so has the recognition by regional powers of China’s strategic value. Middle Eastern leaders, increasingly disillusioned with policies of the United States—including its invasion of Iraq in 2003, support for the Arab Spring in 2011, hurried exit from Afghanistan and withdrawal from nuclear negotiations with Iran—have turned towards China as a potentially more reliable partner.
For Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries especially, the relationship with China has become strategic rather than opportunistic. China’s ability and willingness to cooperate with regional players without imposing political or human rights ideals align with the visions of Middle Eastern leaders. This strategic approach suggests a reorientation of regional relationships and positions, in which China is gaining prominence as a key economic and developmental partner.
The Western perspective on China’s role in the Middle East has shifted over time, too. Initially seen as a non-threatening free-rider benefiting from US security infrastructure, China is now viewed as a significant challenger to US and Western interests in the region. This shift reflects Beijing’s growing economic and strategic influence, especially as the United States has reduced its energy imports from the Middle East, allowing China to fill the gap.
China’s trade with the six-member GCC bloc has drastically surged, increasing from $10 billion in 2000 to more than $230 billion in 2021, further contributing to the erosion of Western influence in the region. China’s increasing interest in technology and its aspiration for technological autonomy have also significantly affected its relationship with the Middle East.
Apart from the GCC countries, in recent years, China has developed a partnership with Israel that has expanded across various domains, from infrastructure to agriculture and education. Trade between the two reached a record $21 billion in 2022, and Chinese firms have been engaged in about 500 investment deals in Israel over the past decade, predominantly in the technology sector, focusing on areas such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
As a result of Chinese investment in Israel’s high-tech industry, which peaked in 2018, and evolving US perceptions of China, Washington applied pressure on Israel to limit its interactions with Beijing. In response, Israel established a foreign investments advisory committee in 2019 and rejected several Chinese bids on security-sensitive infrastructure projects. In recent years, Washington’s influence has significantly limited the scope of Israeli-Chinese trade, especially in sensitive sectors.
Diversifying cooperation
From the perspective of the Gulf states, China’s emergence as a technological powerhouse, especially its Digital Silk Road, fits well with their aspirations to emerge as global leaders in technology and innovation. Collaboration in domains such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications and space exploration can bring about mutual long-term advantages.
More recently, another factor influencing China’s approach to the Middle East has been Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Concerns about potential Western economic sanctions and the ambivalence of Middle East partners of the US towards the Russia–Ukraine conflict have prompted and allowed China to expand the use of its currency in transactions with oil-rich Gulf countries.
For instance, collaborations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia on digital yuan transactions and the initiation of international transaction platforms such as mBridge demonstrate China’s efforts to deepen its economic ties in the region.
Moreover, China has also been gradually making progress in the Middle Eastern market for defence equipment. With the United States refusing to sell its latest weapon-carrying drones to some countries due to such conflicts as the war in Yemen, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and others have turned to China for alternatives.
Such events as the UAE’s suspension of talks with the US over an F-35 deal and subsequent orders for Chinese jet trainers emphasise China’s increasing influence on the region’s defence sector. Reports of Riyadh developing ballistic missiles with Chinese assistance further illustrate this evolving dynamic.
In the diplomatic sphere, China’s facilitation of the diplomatic breakthrough between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March 2023 exemplified its efforts to expand political engagement in the Middle East. The rapprochement not only showcased China’s growing diplomatic weight but also underscored its broader strategic interests in the Middle East, including securing energy supplies and promoting Chinese global initiatives such as the BRI, the Digital Silk Road and the Global Security Initiative […]
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)