Public Opinion in the Middle East toward China
MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE
China’s footprint in the Middle East has grown significantly over the past two decades. Since 1978, when Deng Xiaoping subordinated foreign policy to the domestic needs of economic development and growth, China’s sought to secure reliable energy imports to help sustain that process. As a primary supplier of oil and gas, the Middle East was an important region in this regard, especially after 1993 when China became a net energy importer.[1]
Since then, China has sought to expand its ties with the region’s states in order to advance its commercial and investment interests. Chinese companies have signed business deals not only to ensure regular fuel supplies, but also to develop existing and new energy sources. China has tapped into the Gulf monarchies’ sovereign wealth funds while proposing to direct its own finance and capital towards the region, in the form of infrastructure projects associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).[2]
China’s widening and deepening relations with the region has coincided with a change in the international environment. For much of the post-Cold War period, the U.S. was the hegemonic power in the region. Over the past decade however, American influence has been in relative decline. The U.S. position in the region has been undermined by its inability to end the war against terrorism in Afghanistan or to provide security in Iraq following its 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation. As a result, space has opened up for regional and external powers to exercise influence, leading to a more multipolar Middle East.
