China gave the middle east its verbal support in “independently exploring development paths.” Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang said, “China firmly supports Arab countries in solving regional security issues via solidarity and coordination and supports the Arab people in independently exploring their own development paths”. While this declaration of support is rather vague, it follows a recent trend of China strengthening relations in the middle east. In December, Saudi Arabia hosted the China-Arab States Summit. Qin Gang also stated, “Arab countries and China share common views on strengthening exchanges and mutual learning between civilisations, opposing external interference and defending fairness and justice, among others.”
I think that China is attempting to fill the power void left by The United States in the Middle East. Also, I think that it’s fair to assume that they have an increased interest in the region because of its high oil reserves. In early 2022, The United States withdrew all troops from Afghanistan, which marked a multi decade long American campaign in the middle east. As you could imagine, the sudden removal of American forces in the region caused a massive power vacuum in this already unstable region. Aswell, China has a good reason to be interested in the middle east, because of the region’s high number of oil reserves.
In class, we discussed how different nations have differing geostrategies based on the pros and cons of their geography. China has the highest, and one of the most rapidly growing, populations in the world. Despite this, they import nearly all of their energy from foreign nations because they lack the natural reserves of such resources. This attempt to get friendly with an oil rich region, is a clear example of China’s need for energy affecting their international relations.