What Role Does China Play in the Middle Eastern Affairs?

The visits the the King of Saudi Arabia Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz paid to China, that was quickly followed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Beijing has once again drawn public attention to China’s position on the turbulent events that are taking place in the Middle East. This topic is particularly relevant for Russia, which has found itself in the midst of the ongoing regional events. Apparently, Russia was confident in its belief that the Middle East is the center of geopolitical changes today, as it must have been for quite some time.

However, it prematurely assumed that Chinese regular forces or, in the very least, military advisors are going to be deployed in the region so assist the legitimate Syrian government, which is going to be supplied with a wide range of equipments and even weapons. However, there are no signs pointing to this development, and one would have a hard time spotting any in the foreseeable future. It doesn’t mean that China could care less about the Middle East, it means that the initial assumption about the importance of the region was false.

For the center of a new (after the end of the Cold War) geopolitical game is located in a completely different region, where the major players like the US and the People’s Republic of China have been struggling to get an upper hand for decade – in the Asia-Pacific region. This game is getting particularly tense in the area stretching from the Korean peninsula, passing through the East China Sea, Taiwan and ending in the South China Sea near the eastern entrance to the Strait of Malacca.

China does not yet have the necessary military capabilities to ensure its interests in this area, which is imperative for it to preserve its national interests. And we shouldn’t forget about the role that Taiwan plays for Beijing. The political struggle for this island that is a hundred miles away from China’s coastline is of paramount strategic and moral importance for the Chinese government.

On its western border, China is trying to improve pretty complex relation with yet another Asian giant – India, which is being pitted against Beijing by both the US and Japan for pretty obvious reasons.

Therefore, Beijing doesn’t feel capable of carrying on any sort of police duties in remote regions of the world, among which one can find the Middle East. This, however, does not mean that China does care about this region or has no interest in it.

Thus, it is using economic tools to apply leverage on the course of events taking place in the Middle East. For instance, it has been discussing free trade agreements with the above mentioned major palyers in the region.

For King Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz, a visit to China became one of the main elements of his Asian tour and a sort of a response to Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia that occurred last year. Saudi political elites have already shown signs of interest to the ambitious Chinese One Belt One Road concept. It could play a part in this project by constructing the YAARSEEF refinery on the Red Sea with an associated infrastructure reaching some 10 billion dollars in investments.

The new Silk Road would stretch across the China-Pakistan economic corridor, to the territories of Saudi Arabia and Israel, if the latter are to support this project. It’s hardly a secret that everything connected to Saudi Arabia is oil-related, so Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz’s visit to China resulted in 65 billion dollars worth of oil deals.

As for the Chinese-Israeli negotiations, Tel-Aviv remains in a difficult position even after the favorable presidential election in the United States. Therefore, Tel Aviv’s attempts to raise the level of relations with the second world power look pretty logical.

At the same time, one should not forget that China is the main geopolitical opponent of the Israeli “older brother” – the United States. Moreover, in mid-January, Netanyahu threatened all the states that that voted for the UN resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal with lower the level of diplomatic relations. Among these countries was China, which has always supported the Palestinians in one way or another.

However, during the talks the parties tried to avoid such topics as hard as they could. Both Xi Jinping Benjamin Netanyahu confined themselves to pretty common phrases about their adherence to peace, stability and prosperity of the Middle East, in the interests of all countries, including Israel and China.

Instead the parties focused on economic cooperation, or rather, on cooperation in the field of modern technologies, and here, of course, Israel has something to put on the table. It’s noteworthy (and probably exceptional in modern international practice) that the parties are heading to the “all-round innovative partnership”. A particular attention in the course of such a cooperation will be given to joint developments aimed at solving the problem of environmental protection, which is of critical importance for China.

The only matter left to discuss is the question of the coincidental nature of the back-to-back visits to China, or the absence of thereof.

In this regard, one should once again pay attention to Israel’s readiness to join the practical implementation of the concept of the “Revival of the Great Silk Road” that the KSA did a year ago.

It should not, of course, be overlooked that in China it is quite clearly understood the problematic transition from the associated political mythmaking to the business project language without solving fundamental geopolitical problems.

Moreover, the sources of these are the difficulties in China’s relations not only with the main geopolitical opponent, but also with a conditional “Europe”, where (like 2 thousand years ago) a new “Silk Road” should be completed. However, the persisting problems in the Sino-European relations (the nature of which is fundamentally different from the complexities in Sino-US relations) deserve another separate consideration.

The results of the talks with the leaders of the two leading countries of the WBU again show that Beijing is for the time being limited mainly by the economy in the process of strengthening its positions in the region, trying to play the role of an “honest broker” who does not have the negative “historical luggage” peculiar to Europeans and Americans .

However, the sphere of economy, accompanied by “honest brokerage”, will inevitably yield political results.

Sharply to strengthen the military presence here (despite the above lack of available capacity), China can only force certain extraordinary events. For example, a (hypothetical) increase in the level of military presence in the Indian Ocean and the BBV of Japan. Especially in a (quasi) alliance with India.

Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”