Following the US policy shift to disengage from the Middle East region, which started under President Barack Obama and continued and accelerated under Donald Trump, China stepped in to fill the vacuum created and now plays a wider role in the region. China’s growing influence in the Middle East is a real challenge to US dominance in the region. With the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the Chinese government decided to expand its influence in the Middle East and the world in general and to provide an alternative source of financial assistance to some cash-strapped governments, helping them develop their infrastructure.
China is now the primary buyer of Middle Eastern oil, as about 72 percent of oil consumed in this vast country comes from overseas imports. As oil consumption in the rest of the world is declining and may decline further, China’s oil imports are becoming increasingly significant for Middle Eastern oil producers and so China’s geopolitical importance is growing fast.
Already China has developed comprehensive strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, while its influence in Iran has increased significantly, following the signing of a 25-year cooperation plan with Tehran.
In the wake of the “Arab Spring”, China gradually expanded its engagement in the Middle East and has become the largest investor in the region and the most significant trading partner with the Arab League.
Chinese tech-companies are involved in the most important technological projects in the region such as Smart Dubai 2012 and Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Program 2030.
As Beijing is becoming increasingly alienated by Western countries, which are trying hard to agree on a policy to halt China’s global expansion and prevent its domination of world trade, it has turned its attention to the Middle East, a region that has been neglected by Washington in the past decade.
Jonathan Fulton, assistant professor of political science at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, writes: “China has established comprehensive strategic partnerships with Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, as well as strategic partnerships with Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Turkey. Coinciding with the expansion of the BRI, this flurry of diplomatic activity indicates that Chinese leaders increasingly perceive the Middle East as important to their political and strategic goals.”
Through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a more assertive Beijing seeks to put China at the center of global trade and at the same time place the Digital Silk Road in the leading position of technological innovation, helping jumpstart digital development in the region. Telecommunication companies in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all partnered with Huawei to build 5G networks.
The Belt and Road Initiative envisages the creation of a vast network of railways, highways, energy pipelines and the building of 50 special economic zones. More than 60 countries have signed on BRI projects.