How China Disrupts the Middle East - Daniel Pipes

[TomSea]

How China Disrupts the Middle East
Daniel Pipes


China's growing influence in the Middle East has vast – and worrisome – implications.

As Vladimir Putin's declining Russia flaunts its power in the Middle East, Xi Jinping's ascending China eludes the attention it deserves. But the Communist Party of China has begun investing money and gaining influence in ways that have vast – and worrisome – implications.

"After years of relative passivity [Beijing] is now making a concerted effort to expand its strategic presence and economic clout" in the Middle East, writes Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, in the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly. (I rely extensively on his fine analysis in what follows.) Berman rightly calls this "one of the most consequential ... trends of recent years."

Two motives – energy and ideology – explain China's regional ambitions.

More at: https://www.meforum.org/59338/how-china-disrupts-the-middle-east