China is also a major foreign investor in the region, with investment in ports and other infrastructure helping to secure Beijing’s trade routes to Africa and Europe.
Twenty-one Arab countries are now part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia rank second and third respectively as the top destinations by volume for Chinese construction projects under the BRI.
China is involved in Syria’s reconstruction and is investing in energy and infrastructure projects in Iraq. It is helping build Cairo’s new administrative capital and constructing the new metro in Mecca.
China has also discovered the Middle East is an important source of diplomatic support.
When the United Nations Human Rights Council published a report critical of China’s human rights record in Xinjiang, including possible crimes against humanity against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, China secured Arab support to prevent the report’s consideration.
The UAE, Qatar and Sudan, the three Arab members of the Human Rights Council, sided with China – and against their natural sympathy for their co-religionists in Xinjiang – to block further discussion.
ARAB WORLD IS LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS
For the Arab world, the logic of closer relations with China is equally compelling. As US dependence on Middle East energy has lessened, and as US focus has shifted to strategic competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, the region has felt neglected. It is looking for partners elsewhere.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
