Is China free-riding off the United States in the Middle East?
Yiyi Chen, a professor at the Shanghai Jiaotong University and an adviser on Middle East affairs to the Beijing government, told The Media Line that Beijing in no hurry to significantly increase its role in the region. Right now, its focus is on studying the region and its problems carefully before deepening its involvement.â??The Western way isnâ??t the only way. The U.S. way has its value, but apparently it hasnâ??t solved the crises and conflicts of the region,â? Chen said. â??China has experienced the problem of foreign cultures and foreign value systems trying to impose their views on others ...We donâ??t have a view that we want to impose on the countries of the region.â?
Chinaâ??s growing economic and political clout hasnâ??t yet made itself felt in the Middle East, even as it has become the largest importer of the regionâ??s oil, buying just over a tenth of the Gulfâ??s output and a quarter of Iranâ??s. But Beijing is starting to exercise unprecedented influence on critical issues, most notably by objecting efforts by the West to impose tougher sanctions on Iran. - David Rosenberg
From an American perspective, there's two ways to look at this. First, one can be enraged (or bemused) at how China is free-riding on America's provision of Persian Gulf security. While the American taxpayer and U.S. military bear the costs of keeping the region (relatively) stable, China bears none of those costs but enjoys all the benefits. The second way to view this is that the U.S. has China by the proverbial short hairs should relations deteriorate between the two great powers. With so much U.S. military power in the Gulf, it would be easy to disrupt energy shipments to China, but hard for China to inflict such a blow on the U.S.
What's interesting is Chinese thinking on the matter - insofar as Chen is a representative example. For the moment at least it looks like China is happy playing an "off-shore" role, which means the first interpretation mentioned above (free-rider) is perhaps a more accurate description of what's going on. Of course, China could very well want to play a more overt role in the region and simply lack the capacity or opportunity.
