At beginning of 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping, visited Middle East at a time when the relations between Saudi Arabian led Sunni states and Shiite Iran were touching a low point in recent history. The execution of the influential Shiite minister Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, who was the leading voice of Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia, and the consequent worsening relations between few Middle Eastern Sunni nations and Shiite Iran came especially at a bad time for Xi. His visit to Middle East had many stops at various Sunni states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Meeting with Sunni heads of states at a time when there was an open rift between Sunnis with Shiite Iran risked creating a feeling that China gave importance to one branch of Islam leaving the other in dismay. Such a gesture can greatly undermine Beijing’s policy of non-interference and staunch lack of bias in the Middle East. A similar visit again in a year could be detrimental to China’s neutral image.
Ever since President Xi has taken the presidency he has visited every continent of the world leaving only Middle East. The same fact applied to Premier Li Keqiang. In spring 2015, China canceled a similar visit due to Saudi-driven military crusade in Yemen against the Houthis. Another postponement would have flagged regional spoilers as they can undoubtedly meddle with China’s Middle East strategy. Rather, Xi chose to utilize this crisis of the Muslim world as a chance to project the China’s new Middle East policy, one that also includes China not just playing outside but rather diving right in the Middle East’s tsunami.
It has been a bustling couple of weeks for Beijing’s Middle Eastern strategy. Before al-Nimr execution, Xi, looked for courses for China to infuse itself into the Syrian civil war, welcoming both the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and also the leader of the rebels, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), in Beijing with an end goal to advance peaceful and diplomatic solution. This considerably implies Chinese takeoff from the already set notion of supporting Bashar al-Assad as the legitimate head of Syria.
Beijing on 13 January announced its Arab Policy Paper, an ambiguous yet fundamental manuscript articulating Chinese interest in the Middle Eastern region. President Xi, sent off his Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Ming after the scouring of the Saudi embassy in Tehran to meet the Iranian and Saudi counterparts, encouraging them to practice restraint and clam. Xi likewise revised his travel agenda, supplementing his arranged visit to the UAE with a sudden stop in Tehran. This way he was the first pioneer to set foot in Iran since the lifting of long sanctions.
For equalization, he brought the Saudis a relief by announcing to back Yemen’s administration to power, which the Saudis support in the war against Iran’s intermediary.
Such a hyperactive diplomatic gesture might shock those acclimated to Chinese inclination to maintain a strategic distance from interventionism. Skeptics might say that these are all strategic moves intended to secure prime chances of trade and commerce for China on both sides. There might be little truth to this. Be that as it may, it would be wrong to ignore Chinese most recent moves in Middle East to be immaculate for monetary advantage.
Understanding that the Middle East is too essential to be ignored and dumped for other powers, China today is no more to sit on the periphery and let Middle East plummet into mayhem. China for a while has been doubtful regarding USA where elections are to be held along with the low supply of household oil and gas, will not be inspired to save Middle East as it has been for the past half century. In fact, USA relations with Iran and KSA are excessively prickly, making it impossible for USA to become a legit deal broker.
More significantly, Russia has set out the banner of Middle East impartiality that it conveyed for the major portion of the post-Soviet period. Moscow once enchanted and had great relations with Tehran and Riyadh. Nevertheless, diving into civil war of Syria, Russia in spite of the fact that a large portion of its Muslim populace is Sunni, trapped itself with the Shiite camp, and can never again be trusted by the Sunnis. With both USA and Russia not ready to keep regional harmony and bring balance along Iran and Saudi Arabia, China, which has strong relations with both, is progressively enticed to fill the growing vacuum.
There are a few reasons why the Sunni-Shiite partition is of specific worry to China. As the Middle East is home to a substantial part of the world’s biggest oil reserves, the Persian Gulf area is imperative to the Chinese economy. While the world at present is getting exceptionally low cost oil, this could undoubtedly change if the contention between Sunnis and Shiites kept on rising.
Shiites might be a minority in the Muslim world overall, however in the oil-rich Persian Gulf they contain a dominant part. In the event that Iran and Saudi Arabia and its Sunni associates get to be entangled in a territorial war including physical harm to oil companies infrastructure, the crude oil price would touch the roof which is not only harmful for China but also for world economy. However, with half of China’s unrefined imports originating from the Persian Gulf, such an emergency would cost China much more than any other state economy.
Winston Churchill stated, “The cost of greatness is responsibility.” As the Chinese are walking towards greatness it also needs to prepare to pay that cost in the Middle East which, will soon be tested.