1st Edition
Routledge Handbook on China–Middle East Relations
This handbook brings together a mix of established and emerging international scholars to provide valuable analytical insights into how China’s growing Middle East presence affects intra-regional development, trade, security, and diplomacy.
As the largest extra-regional economic actor in the Middle East, China is the biggest source of foreign direct investment into the region and the largest trading partner for most Middle Eastern states. This portends a larger role in political and security affairs, as the value of Chinese assets combined with a growing expatriate population in the region demands a more proactive role in contributing to regional order. Exploring the effect of these developments, the expert contributors also consider the reverberations in great power politics, as the United States, Russia, India, Japan, and the European Union also have considerable interests in the region. The book is divided into four sections:
• Historical and policy context
• State and regional case studies
• Trade and development
• International relations, security, and diplomacy.
This volume is an essential reference for scholars and policy-makers in the fields of international relations, political sociology, international political economy, and foreign policy analysis. Area studies specialists in Middle Eastern Studies, China Studies, and East Asian Studies will also find it an invaluable resource.
PART I Overview
1 China’s emergence as a Middle East power
Jonathan Fulton
2 China and the Middle East: An autobiographical perspective
Yitzhak Shichor
3 The Middle East in China’s global strategies
Tim Niblock
4 China in Middle Eastern strategic thinking
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
5 Strategic convergence or strategic rivalry? China and America in the Middle East
Christopher K. Colley
PART II Relations among regions and states
6 China and the Gulf region: From strangers to partners
Mohamed Bin Huwaidin
7 China and the Levant: Unlike any other world power
Yoram Evron
8 China and North Africa: History, economic engagement and soft power
Tin Hinane El Kadi
9 China– Egypt relations during the BRI era and beyond
Duan Jiuzhou
10 China and Saudi Arabia: From enmity to strategic hedging
Naser Al- Tamimi
11 Turkey’s relations with China and the Belt and Road Initiative
Altay Atli
12 China–Iran relations: A low- quality comprehensive strategic partnership
Jacopo Scita
13 Israel and China: Past distance, present cooperation, uncertain future
Roie Yellinek
14 Frozen in time: China–Algeria relations from socialist friendship to pandemic opportunism
Lina Benabdallah
15 Sino-Omani relations
Mohammed Al- Sudairi
PART III Trade and development
16 China’s evolving energy relations with the Middle East
Philip Andrews-Speed and Lixia Yao
17 China’s approach to post-conflict reconstruction in the Middle East
Samuel Ramani
18 China’s nascent soft power projection in the Middle East and North Africa: Cultural, educational, and media initiatives
Chai Shaojin
19 Technological dimensions of China– MENA economic relations
Robert Mogielnicki
PART IV International relations, security, and diplomacy
20 China’s partnership diplomacy in the Middle East
Degang Sun
21 Chinese private security companies in the Middle East
Alessandro Arduino
22 Community-building and social engagement: The overseas Chinese community in the United Arab Emirates
Wang Yuting
23 The China model and the Middle East
Mehran Kamrava
24 A tough job: Chinese diplomats in the Middle East and North Africa
Andrea Ghiselli
25 China and the Palestinian– Israeli conflict
Guy Burton
26 Chinese diplomatic outreach to MENA: Cooperation forums and special envoys
Dawn C. Murphy
Biography
Jonathan Fulton is an assistant professor of political science in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.