![]() ![]() In this context, in 2013, China announced its plan for the “Belt and Road Initiative” project (BRI). The economic benefits that China seeks in the Middle East are not only limited to what China can earn from the region it is also about what China can gain via the Middle East from the rest of the world. Middle East: An Emerging Crossroad of Global Trade In this context, we can reason why about 80 thousand Chinese contractors are in the Middle East, while the US is keeping more than 65 thousand soldiers in the region. Today, with a total of $244.27 billion worth of investment, China is the top foreign investor in the Middle East. Trade is not the only field in which China plays a prominent role direct foreign investment in the Middle East is another race that China is outpointing the US. In this context, in 2019, China, with exporting about $140 billons worth of products to the Middle East, two times more than the US $77 billion worth of annual export, secured its position as the dominant exporter to the Middle East. Eventually, in 2008 China, with exporting $7 billion more than the US (total of $74 Billion), outpaced United States’ export to the Middle East. ![]() Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $6 Trillion in wars in the Middle East, and while was struggling in Afghanistan and Iraq, China slowly but gradually abated its distance with the US over the Middle Eastern market. In 2001 when the US with invading Afghanistan started its military journey in the Middle East, China’s annual export to the Middle East was about $9 Billion while US export to the Middle East was more than $25 Billion. With about 250 million population, the Middle East is one of the most attractive markets for giant industries, an attraction that slowly drove China to make its way into the region in the last two decades. Undoubtedly, any answer but no would be a naïve response to this question. So, it is safe to argue that the Middle East has a strategic value for China, and it is reasonable for Beijing to have a clear and keen Middle East strategy, but is oil the only thing that matters in the Middle East to China? Beijing imports almost half (47.1%) of its much-needed crude oil from the Middle East. Today, thanks to the US rapid growth in oil crude production and China’s unstoppable industry, China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest crude oil importer. The most cliché response to that would be “Oil,” which is not incorrect. The answer depends on where we are getting our information if the daily newspapers are the primary source of our knowledge, the answer probably would be “Yes,” but if we look at statics on trade and investment, it is inevitable to notice that a “Silent Chinese Dragon” is rapidly nesting all over the Middle East to challenge the American bald eagle and ambitious Russian bear.īefore going further, we need to find out why the old Asian dragon is interested in the Middle East. major competitor in the region, but one might wonder if Russia is the only actor that challenges the United States in the Middle East? In light of the media’s excessive attention to Russia’s actions in the Middle East, Moscow has been portrayed as a U.S. Since then, there’s not a day that goes without news about Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East. The Return of Great Power Competition to the Middle EastĪt long last, in 2015, the Russian military intervention in Syria appeared as the first strike from a major global power against the US-backed regional order. ![]() However, for about two decades, the United States did not face any pushbacks from major international powers in the Middle East. hegemony in the region was not left unchallenged by regional actors such as Iran, Syria, non-state Shia actors, and Salafi Jihadi groups. Eventually, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 brought the semi-era of American hegemony upon the Middle East. As a result, the Middle East witnessed a full-scale competition between leading powers of Capitalism and Communism and their proxies for almost five decades. In this context, right after WW II, both the Soviet Union and the United States started to form coalitions of friendly states in the region to counter the other one. However, World War Two later ended the Anglo-French-formulated regional order and led to a new rivalry between emerging superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States. It first started between the leading nations of the Allied Powers in World War One, the British Empire and French, which in the aftermath of defeating the Ottoman Empire, divided most of the region between themselves. Since the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1922, the Middle East has been a field of competition among the great powers.
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