China Smoothly Expands in the Middle East

• 03.07.2015, 12:46
•  Near East,  Asia,  World

Having its geo-economic interests in the Middle East, China continues to calmly expand in that region. Pakistani research-analyst Salman Rafi Sheikh in his article mentions that "China has already become the biggest importer of oil, overtaking the US itself," journal-neo.org quotes. Chinese trade turnover with the Middle East has risen from around $20 billion in 2004 to $230 billion in 2014, with the trade volume expected to exceed $500 billion by 2020. Last year China replaced the European Union as the region’s foremost trading partner, pushing the US to the second place.

In this region China’s behaviour can be characterized as "talk to everyone, but not to annoy anyone". Chinese strategy is  to secure economic interests without igniting political tensions in the region. On the contrary, the US ignites political and ethnic tensions in the region as a part of its classic divide and rule stratagem, because of which it is considered as a rather doubtful economic partner or an ally.

China’s policy in the Middle East brought it prosperity. Today China is a leading importer of oil in the world, and the Arabian monarchies with pleasure supply it with oil without encountering any political demands in return.

However, according to Salman Rafi Sheikh, Middle East is a complicated region, where politics too often trumps all and inter-clan and inter-confessional hostility is able to put an end to the most profitable business. That is why if China wants to continue its expansion in the Middle East, in its tactics it should adopt a political component, too.