Is China beginning a long march to winning the Middle East? Nope. But China is winning the experts.
China is not winning the Middle East:
Amid the recent catastrophes in the Middle East—the renewed Israel-Hamas war; widening violence in Lebanon, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea—one player counts the past year a success: China.
Beijing stacked up strategic win after win, not just expanding its economic presence, but convening leadership summits, brokering peace deals, and even holding a joint military training exercise with one of the U.S.’s most important allies in the region. While shifts in power and influence often become evident only after the fact, history could one day look back on 2023 as the year that China truly began to win the Middle East.
Oh, please. China has much greater economic and military power so naturally
China would like to be
an alternative to America. So far, zilch. Selling arms to "Death to
America" Iran doesn't count. Unless you actually believe mullah-run Iran can be sweet-talked by America.
The authors also admit Arab states want
China as leverage for dealing with America. And why do they want that leverage? Yeah. It's an own-goal by America. And you could add in the bizarre and needless American defeat in Afghanistan. That builds confidence, eh?
If so, why is new friend Iran harming world trade that China relies on?
China, the world’s biggest exporter, says it is deeply concerned about tensions in the Red Sea that have upended global trade by forcing many shippers to avoid the Suez Canal.
China has been in “close communication with all parties concerned and making positive efforts to de-escalate” the situation in which Iran-backed Houthi rebels have attacked international ships with missiles, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing on Wednesday.
Funny enough, China has seemed content to do little and let America secure China's vital trade routes from the Houthi:
China, with a trade-led economy dependent on the free flow of commerce through chokepoints like the Bab el-Mandeb strait off Yemen, relies on the United States to protect international sea lanes.
China absolutely has more influence in the region. But don't make the contrast the reduction in American military power in the region that declined from peak need for military power. Our influence is still strong.
And then there is India's power to undermine China's military power in the Middle East.
So work the problem. But don't panic. China is not ten feet tall.
And I swear to God I'll slap you silly if you claim China has magical long-range planning abilities.
NOTE: The image was made from DALL-E.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
