1. Middle East Affairs; arabicamr18@gmail.com

*             Correspondence: arabicamr18@gmail.com

Keywords: China, Middle East, Chinese strategy, security

1. INTRODUCTION

The Middle East was one of the regions of the world towards which China adopted a policy of balance and not delving into internal affairs as part of a strategy of slowly crawling toward the top of the international system. However, this policy has already begun to develop and change with time. Since 2017, when China established its first military base in the Middle East, on the coast of Djibouti, Beijing began a different role in the region, and accordingly, Chinese roles in the Middle East have grown, until today they include the security and political fields. Beijing’s mediation to normalize the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia was considered one of the most prominent shifts in the Chinese strategy towards the region, and it portends new security roles for Beijing in the region. Moreover, Beijing rushed to call on the countries of the region to replace the dollar with the Chinese yuan, whether through energy trade or commodity trade. This indicates a very important strategic shift from China towards the Middle East, which would make the region engage in the battle to overthrow the international order in which the United States is on its throne. This paper examines the most prominent changes pursued by the Chinese strategy in the region, within the framework of Beijing’s endeavor to ascend to the top of the international system, exploring the most prominent security roles that China plays today in the Middle East region and the extent to which the countries of the region tend to engage in the trench of China and the rising forces of regime change.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 China’s Strategy in the Middle East, What has changed?

China has always pursued a specific strategy towards the Middle East, based on economic cooperation and non-interference in internal affairs, especially the security and military situation. China has relied on playing on the balances in the region so that it does not show clear bias to any of the parties. And based on the Chinese strategic approach to working gradually to rise to the top of the international system, Beijing’s strategy in the Middle East was gradual, as Beijing announced on January 13, 2016, its strategic approach in the Middle East, in the “Document of China’s Policy towards the Arab Countries”, which included an equation Cooperation (1 + 2 + 3), which includes China’s vision for the region, so represent number 1 energy as interest essential, And he represents number 2 structure infrastructure And so on Trade investment while representing number 3 cooperation in domains energy nuclear, And the moons industrial, and sources energy new (SRATEGIECS, 2023). The Chinese strategy has moved to the adoption of four Actions towards the Middle East, which are: diplomacy mediation, and expand its partnerships political with Countries in the Middle East region, and post forces to save peace and deepen cooperation The Economist (Al Kanadiq website, 2022). This strategy is changing. and the shift from administration crises to Solution crises, In the framework of Beijing’s pursuit to preserve on balance strategy in Opposite Countries great, The East Middle Sun door duty this Type of balance. The transformation represented Beijing’s move to mediate between the two traditional rivals in the region, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and to extract the role of mediation in the region, after it was exclusively for Washington. It is an advanced step for Beijing towards a new role in the Middle East, especially after the withdrawal of Americans from the region (Hisham, 2023). Where gold Jonathan Fulton, a fellow not the resident in the council Atlantic, to several Exit Important two thieves approach regional until This is amazing the point, adding that deal indicate to ready China to do role Larger in Region. Hile Lives filo panto Chi, The expert Western salient in Affairs China and colleague participant big in institute Researches British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), China’s role in the Saudi-Iranian deal as an essential means of initiating ‘Beijing dynamic’ foreign policy intervention in the turbulent politics of the Middle East (Sofuoglu, 2023).

2.2 Is There a Security Role for Beijing in the Middle East?

The American foreign policy theorist “Henry Kissinger” believes that the Israeli and American pressure on Tehran now needs to “take into account” the Chinese interests in Iran. It is according to the pattern of the Chinese strategy in dealing with global issues, which is based on gradual and slow progress, and the Chinese relationship with the Middle East was limited to issues of economic cooperation and investment only. However, security issues are secondary issues for Beijing. The security concern has not escaped the Chinese strategic mind. From passive response to active participation; from waiting for opportunities to building opportunities; from not interfering in the internal affairs of others to assuming the duties of a responsible power, which will help safeguard China’s vital interests and national security in the Middle East. With the increasing awareness of the strategy, the Chinese call for the need to create a comprehensive security structure with all the active countries in the Middle East, so that China will be among them. Its explicit security move was in August 2017 to establish a military base in Djibouti, at the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the important international corridor, located on the Maritime Silk Road, which is China’s first military base outside its borders (Degan, 2017). According to the “Open Seas” strategy, this was included in the white paper issued by Beijing in 2019, in which it emphasized the army’s role in protecting China’s overseas interests, as an integral part of the country’s vital and strategic interests (Al Kanadiq website, 2022). In the sense that Beijing will seek to protect those roads by land and sea, i.e. expanding military bases along the Silk Road. Especially the eastern region, on which China relies for its supplies of no less than 60% of its energy needs to move the wheel of its superior production. (Al-Watan Newspaper, 2023). Consistent with this steady increase in Beijing’s willingness to become more involved in security issues in the world, especially in the Middle East, Beijing has announced an increase in military spending this year to $225 billion, an increase of about 7.2 percent, in exchange for reducing economic growth by 5 percent this year, which is the lowest level of Chinese growth in several decades (BBC, 2023). On his visit to Saudi Arabia in December 2022, the Chinese president announced China’s readiness to support the building of a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security system in the Middle East (TRT Arabic, 2023). In exchange for that announcement Mohammed bin Salman affirmed that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports Beijing in protecting its sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and also supports Chinese measures and efforts aimed at de-radicalization (Cerdan, 2023). The Saudi and Chinese sides agreed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would increase the volume of oil exports to China, for China to build strategic reserves. While China’s role requires that it sell and transfer military technology to the Kingdom (Al Kanadiq website, 2022). Beijing’s step in mediating the normalization of relations between the two traditional rivals in the region, Tehran and Riyadh, last March. An advanced step towards Beijing playing a new security role in the region, as the guarantor of achieving peace between these two prominent powers in the Middle East, and in more than one country in the region, where their tools are. It is an explicit indication of China’s upcoming security role in the region, as it is undoubtedly an active part of the region’s security system.

2.3 Beijing is pushing the Region to Wage a Battle to End the Hegemony of the Dollar

Indeed, it has been five years since the policy of removing the dollar from the international economic scene began with the creation of the petroyuan. The total foreign exchange reserves of IMF member countries were 72% in 2000, and by 2021 they have decreased to 59% (Cerdan, 2023). Considering that international energy trade is the decisive tool in the matter of appropriations of the global monetary system, Beijing is working to bring the oil state in the Middle East into the trenches of the battles that Beijing is leading to dislodge the dollar, as Saudi Arabia is currently in talks with China to set the prices of some Saudi oil sales in Chinese yuan after they stopped, for six years (Said & Kalin, 2023). The matter is very dangerous, as Saudi oil imports to China in 2021 amount to about 1.75 million barrels per day. And three times what Washington buys (Sputnik Arabia, 2023). Considering that the Kingdom is the largest oil exporter in the world, especially Riyadh, it is currently pursuing an alternative policy to the American, after the relationship between the two sides worsened. Although it is too early to talk about the possibility of Riyadh dispensing with the US dollar in its oil trade, according to observers, given that approximately 25% of the assets of the Saudi Central Bank amounting to $ 493 billion are US Treasury bonds. However, this is likely to lead to severe damage to the position of the dollar on the global monetary system in the foreseeable future, given the dependence of the US dollar in this position on the adoption of the dollar currency for energy trade in the world (Mille, 2023). Otherwise, considering China is the region’s largest trading partner, the feasibility of adopting local currencies for mutual trade between the two sides is another factor precipitating the displacement of the dollar. Especially with the increase in Beijing’s commercial activities in the Chinese Yuan with the countries of the region, the latest of which is the completion of the China National Offshore Oil Company “CNOOC” and Total Energy to import the first gas shipment from the UAE with about 65 thousand tons of liquefied natural gas to purchase the UAE LNG in its local currency, the Yuan (Al-Lawati, 2023). Likewise, private Iraqi companies completed business deals with China in Yuan, as the economic advisor to the Iraqi government, Dr. Mazhar Salih, considers this step as the latest evidence of the growing role of the Chinese yuan globally, through Beijing gradually opening its financial markets at present (Reuters, 2023). And it would be ironic indeed if the international oil industry which was a vital factor in US-led globalization became a critical instrument in the demise of this system. But it can happen (Said & Kalin, 2023). While Middle Eastern countries tend to deal positively with the Petroyuan strategy, and trade exchange between China and the region in local currencies instead of dollars, due to their desire to be free from Western economic sanctions, which relied on the globalization of the dollar for the success of its implementation such as Iran, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya are some of the countries on OFAC’s long list (Demongeot & Klaus, 2023).

3. CONCLUSIONS

It has become clear that China is indeed heading to the Middle East as a superpower, not as a friend, but rather as a strategic partner, with rights and obligations, its right to the strategic, security, and economic partnership in the Middle East region, and its obligations to achieve security, economic and political stability in the region, and today The region is witnessing a major change in China’s strategy, not only on the economic and diplomatic fronts, but Beijing is beginning a new phase of a strategic partnership with it, focused on achieving security, stability and achieving economic development for its countries. Today, Beijing is actively involved in drawing the security and military reality in the region, steadily, with the deepening of economic and political cooperation. China is also inaugurating the beginning of the strategic shift of the Middle East countries towards the East (China) instead of the West (America), by intensifying its security presence and preparing to fill the void left by Washington. Encouraging trade in Chinese yuan instead of dollars, which has succeeded in more than one country in the region, especially energy trade, which is led by countries in the region rich in energy resources, and this is in the way of writing the end of the current international system, which is the goal that China seeks.

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