Both Xi Jinping’s third term as president and China’s second century began with the CCP’s 20th Congress. Xi Jinping launched his foreign policy agenda with lightning speed once the CCP Congress ended. He initially participated in summits in Asia, after which he welcomed the leaders of several nations, including Germany and the EU, in Beijing. Lastly, he visited Saudi Arabia a second time. Xi held two summits with Arab and Gulf countries during this tour.
During the three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, compensating for the pandemic’s loss, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed 35 agreements worth $50 billion, including the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement. In particular, an increase in trade volume and collaboration in energy and military took center stage. During this trip, Xi Jinping attended two separate summits: the first was the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the second was the China-Arab States Summit, which was first hosted by 21 Arab nations. Xi delivered a keynote speech at the Summit titled “Carrying Forward the Spirit of China-Arab Friendship and Jointly Building a China-Arab Community with a Shared Future in the New Era.” In his speech, he touched upon current issues, starting with China’s historical ties with the Arab world, including China’s support for the Arab countries’ liberation wars. In brief, Xi invited the Arab world to forge a shared future and share a common destiny. Xi’s address demonstrated that a new Arab world is emerging, and Arab nations are eager to take their place in this world. China has once more expressed its support for the settlement of the Palestinian issue that is an independent and a UN member Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital within pre-1967 borders.
The history of China’s relations with the Arab world over the past 70 years was founded on an ideological perspective of the Cold War. The central conflict between China and the Soviet Union at this time was fought over control of the Third World. In the post-Cold War period, the Arab world and the Middle East began to have a more pragmatic meaning for China, and after the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc fell apart, the need for a reliable source of trade and energy replaced the ideological perspective. In other words, post-Cold War Chinese foreign policy is more pragmatic than revolutionary. Additionally, China views the Arab East as an economic market rather than a political buttress.
Due to the growing Iranian threat, mainly as a result of the Yemen War, Saudi Arabia has rapidly begun arming. In this context, it has purchased billions of dollars worth of weapons from the United States. However, the recent tensions with the US over the murder of Khashoggi and oil shortages have brought China to the fore as an alternative to the US for Saudi Arabia. It has been noted that a pattern of American presidents systematically humiliating the Riyadh government with Trump’s remarks, “Saudi king would not last without US support for two weeks,” and Biden’s calling Saudi Arabia pariah. These developments have brought Saudi Arabia closer to the Russian-Chinese Bloc, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization signed a dialogue partnership protocol with Saudi Arabia at the Samarkand summit this year.
According to prior agreements, Saudi Arabia is currently to purchase $4 billion worth of weaponry from China by 2022. In fact, the arms trade between China and Saudi Arabia dates back to 1985. China sold 50 medium-range DF-3 ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia in 1986. Nuclear warheads can also be installed on these rockets. Saudi Arabia received DF-21 missiles in 2007. After 2014 and 2017, Arabia kept purchasing unmanned aerial vehicles from China. American intelligence claims that China is assisting Saudi Arabia in developing ballistic missiles close to Riyadh. Meanwhile, last August, Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase Patriot air defense systems worth 3 billion dollars from the USA.
The United States tolerates Saudi Arabia buying weapons from China because of Iran. A powerful Saudi Arabia is a force in the Middle East that can thwart and counter Iran. The same cannot be true about China, though. China arms both Iran and Saudi Arabia. For China, both countries are markets and energy suppliers. While China’s arms sales to Iran are ironic for Saudi Arabia, China’s strategic ties with Israel, particularly in the field of defense, are ironic for Iran. That Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said, “If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off to shore up our security,” hints at the possibility of the Gulf states acquiring nuclear weapons. It is also significant that this bold statement was made following Xi Jinping’s visit.
Iran’s reaction to the visit
Iran was the top priority on the agenda of the Gulf Cooperation Council summit with China. The first four articles of the 18-article joint statement are directly related to Iran. Including Iran’s nuclear program and its support for sectarian strife, many issues were discussed. However, the most significant issue is covered in the 12th article of the statement: “The leaders affirmed their support for all peaceful efforts, including the initiative and endeavours of the United Arab Emirates to reach a peaceful solution to the issue of the three islands; Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, through bilateral negotiations in accordance with the rules of international law, and to resolve this issue in accordance with international legitimacy.”
Iran viewed the statement as arrogant and found unacceptable the backing of the Gulf Cooperation Council and China to the United Arab Emirates, which claimed rights on three strategic islands belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf. Moreover, harshly criticizing the expression “through bilateral negotiations in accordance with the rules of international law, and to resolve this issue in accordance with international legitimacy,” Iran reacted to the call for negotiation on a matter pertaining to its non-negotiable sovereignty.
While Iran stressed that there were occasional conflicts over these three islands with the United Arab Emirates, China’s appearance to be taking a side in the conflict shocked the Tehran government. Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy director of political affairs at the office of the Iranian President, criticized China, tweeting: “Chinese colleagues should remember that when Saudi Arabia and America supported ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups in Syria and destroyed Yemen with brutal military aggression, it was Iran that fought the terrorists to establish stability and security in the region.” Moreover, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador over the joint statement following the China-GCC countries summit in Saudi Arabia. In the meeting with the Chinese ambassador, the Iranian side expressed dissatisfaction with the joint statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council and China regarding Iran’s territorial integrity. It was emphasized that the three islands in the Persian Gulf are inseparable parts of Iran, and like any other Iranian territory, these never have and will never be subject to negotiations with any country.
Upon the Iranian reaction, the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister immediately visited Tehran. “China will not waver in its determination to develop its comprehensive strategic partnership with Iran,” said the Vice Premier of China, emphasizing that China firmly supports Iran in opposing external interference and safeguarding its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity.
The strategic relationship that Iran has recently started to forge with Russia and India has not gone unnoticed by Beijing. Significantly as Iran improved relations with India, relations with China’s ally Pakistan began to deteriorate further. According to American media reports, Russia and Iran are now strategic allies in the Ukraine War. Recent tensions have raised questions about Iran’s possible departure from China and approach to Russia.
All in all, China’s acknowledgment of this tumultuous environment of the Arab world, in which wars and conflicts have continued for a century, means that China is abandoning its traditional foreign policy. Does it produce a great power relationship that resembles tutelage or images of big brother, brother, and master, which China opposes in principle and sees as a policy of imperialism in a world where all of its checks and balances have been established by the tutelage administrations? Does it take this risk? Would China, furthermore, take part in the traditional problems of the Arab world? These questions still have no apparent answers. For instance, the image in the conflict between the United Arab Emirates and Iran was interpreted as China taking a side. Similarly, China is likely to encounter Israel due to the backing given to Palestine. Reiterating that the Asia Pacific is nobody’s backyard, Xi Jinping did not adopt the same rhetoric for the Middle East. The fact is that Biden declared during his visit to Israel last summer that the United States would not abandon the Middle East and would not cede control in the region to Russia and China suggests that the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States in the Asia Pacific will soon move to the Middle East.
