A
PAX SINICA IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
By Dr. Kang Wu
Source: esi.nus.edu. sg
English-language media
completely ignored a noteworthy statement that led Der Spiegel‘s GERMAN-language
website October 12, a call for CHINA to “take on responsibility as a world
power” in the MIDDLE EAST. Penned by Bernhard Zand, the GERMAN news
organization’s Beijing correspondent, it is terse and to the point: now that CHINA
imports more oil from the MIDDLE EAST than any other country in the world, it
must answer for the region’s security. “AMERICA’S interest in the MIDDLE EAST diminishes
day by day” as it heads towards energy self-sufficiency, wrote Zand, adding:
CHINA’S interest in a
peaceful MIDDLE EAST is enormous, by contrast. Beijing is not only the biggest
customer of precisely those oil powers who presently are fanning the flames of
conflict in SYRIA; as a VIP customer, Beijing has growing political influence,
which it should use openly. The word of the CHINESE foreign minister has just
as much weight in Tehran and Riyadh as that of his AMERICAN counterpart.
AMERICA’S
BUDGET DEFICIT
CHINA’S situation, Zand
continues, is rather like GERMANY’S after reunification: a state whose economic
power is growing will eventually be asked what it puts on the table
politically. He concludes:
The time when AMERICAN
could be counted on to secure Beijing’s supply lines soon will come to an end —
AMERICA’S budget deficit will take care of that by itself. Whoever wants to be
a world power must take on responsibilities.
I have no idea how CHINA
envisions its future role in the MIDDLE EAST. AMERICANS will learn the
intentions of the powers who gradually fill the vacuum left by Washington’s
withdrawal from the world “well after the fact, if ever”. It is helpful,
though, to take note of what the rest of the world is saying, particularly when
not a single ENGLISH-language source made reference to it. Der Spiegel’s public
call for CHINA to assume a leading geopolitical role in the MIDDLE EAST,
though, did not appear out of context.
CHINA’S
INTERESTS IN THE LANDS BETWEEN THE HIMALAYAS AND THE MEDITERRANEAN
AMERICAN commentators
have regarded CHINA as a spoiler, the source of PAKISTAN’S nuclear weapons
technology, IRAN’S ballistic missiles, and other alarming instances of
proliferation. It is worth considering a radically different view of CHINA’S
interests in the lands between the Himalayas and the Mediterranean: no world
power has more to lose from instability than does CHINA.
IRAN’S nuclear weapons
program poses the greatest risk to the region, and CHINA has been viewed as
uncooperative in the extreme by WESTERN diplomats trying to tighten the
economic screws on Tehran. CHINESE companies, moreover, have helped IRAN bypass
trade sanctions, but at great cost, and with a complex result. The New York
Times on September 30 profiled the problems of IRAN’S economy under the
sanctions, and took note of the country’s dependence on CHINA:
One economist, Mohammad
Sadegh Jahansefat, said the government had been taken hostage by countries
benefiting from the sanctions – particularly CHINA, which he called the worst
business partner IRAN had ever had.
“CHINA has monopolized
our trade — we are subsidizing their goods, which we are forced to import,” he
said, adding of its work in the energy industry, “They destroy local production
and leave oil and gas projects unfinished so that no one can work with them.”
PAKISTAN
A FORCE TO RECKON WITH?
CHINA’S capacity to
exert pressure on the IRANIAN regime is considerable. Apart from its interest
in avoiding nuclear proliferation in the PERSIAN GULF, CHINA has a number of
points of conflict with IRAN. The one that should keep Tehran on its toes
is the Islamic Republic’s border with PAKISTAN. IRAN announced that it had
hanged 16 alleged Sunni rebels in Baluchistan province on the PAKISTANI border,
the latest in a long series of violent incidents.
“With a population of
170 million, PAKISTAN has 20 million men of military age, as many as IRAN and TURKEY
combined; by 2035 it will have half again as many. It also has nuclear weapons.
IRAN
SITS BETWEEN TWO SUNNI POWERS -TURKEY AND PAKISTAN
– that depend to a
great extent on SAUDI financing, and that also have excellent relations with CHINA.
TURKEY’S still-disputed agreement to buy a CHINESE air defense system
represented a revolution in CHINESE-TURKISH relations, motivated by a CHINESE
promise to transfer the whole package of relevant technology to TURKEY and to
help the TURKS to manufacture the systems, a more generous offer than ever
Ankara got from the West. TURKEY is the logical terminus for the “New Silk
Road” of road, rail, pipelines and broadband that CHINA has proposed to build
in CENTRAL ASIA.
CHINA, it might be
added, also has excellent relations with ISRAEL, whose premier technical
university just was offered a US$130 million grant from Hong Kong magnate Li
Ka-shing to fund part of the costs of building a branch in CHINA. CHINESE provincial
and local governments will contribute another $147 million. The seamless
interchange of ideas and personnel between ISRAEL’S military, universities and
tech entrepreneurs is a success story in miniature that CHINA hopes to
reproduce in scale. As SINGAPORE-based political scientist Michael Raska reports, CHINA’S military modernization
envisions the spread of dual-use technologies to private industry.
Background
Information:
RED SEA AND
MEDITERRANEAN GAS TRANSFER LINK ENHANCES CHINA'S EXPORT TO SOUTHERN EUROPE AND
THE BALKANS
CHINA’S LAND
BRIDGE TO TURKEY CREATES NEW EURASIAN GEOPOLITICAL POTENTIALS
Without attributing any
geopolitical intention to Beijing, the visible facts make clear that CHINA has
the capacity to exercise strategic influence in the MIDDLE EAST, and it has an
unambiguous interest in maintaining stability. What CHINA might choose to do,
Washington will learn after the fact, if ever. If CHINA wished to influence IRAN,
for example, it has considerable means to do so, and a great deal else besides.
The middle east is one of Asia's shining countries that's why filing for a foreign earned income tax credit for Americans will be highly beneficial.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteشركة كشف تسربات بالرياض
شركة كشف تسربات الغاز بالرياض
شركة نقل اثاث خارج الرياض
تسليك بالرياض
شركة تنظيف بالرياض
شركة تنظيف بيوت بالرياض
شركة تنظيف منازل بالرياض
شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض
شركة رش شمال الرياض
شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض