Very late to the newsletter today - I had a long meeting this morning followed by a recording of the podcast, and have just gotten through the tabs on my browser now.
Q&A | Potential Impacts of New US Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Exports to China - This looks interesting. I haven’t had time to read it yet, but Erica Downs is excellent on China energy issues, and I’ll definitely be reading it closely tomorrow.
Ancient wisdom-sharing ties with Arab states - This piece from Global Times is silly and I would hesitate to share it, except I’ve already seen a few ridiculous bits of analysis on China’s soft power push into the Middle East and I suspect we’ll hear so much more about it over the next few days. The reality is that right now, in 2024, China has very little soft power in the Middle East. Like, almost none. Everyone loves Korean K-pop, Japanese manga and anime, Indian movies, Turkish dramas, but almost nobody is an aficionado of Chinese pop culture - maybe online games a bit, but really, I spend most of my professional life talking with undergrads in the UAE and the pillars of Chinese soft power do not exist here. Yet. That might change, but I’ve talked with people in several Middle Eastern countries about this and China’s not especially strong on soft power. Yes, you can find polling data that indicates improving perceptions of China’s engagement with certain countries - the Arab Barometer, for example - but that’s not the same thing as the Nye concept of soft power, '“shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction”. I’ll write more about this later, but for the time being, read any analysis of China’s MENA soft power with a healthy dose of skepticism.
This piece from Xinhua is still trying out the ‘wave of reconciliation’ trope: “Last year, China brokered a historic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a move that not only helped ease tensions within the region but also catalyzed a wave of reconciliations among Arab states and within the broader region.” Anyone in the Middle East right now would have a hard time locating this wave. Still, I expect there will be a lot of similar talking points tomorrow and in the aftermath of the CASCF.
Chinese FM meets with Yemeni counterpart - Yemeni FM Shayea Mohsen Al-Zindani met with FM Wang Yi as well as China’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun. Not much to say on this. Yemen “hopes that China will continue to play a greater role in cooling down the situation in the Red Sea and promoting reconciliation and reconstruction of Yemen.” From the China side: “The tense situation in the Red Sea is a prominent manifestation of the spillover from the Gaza conflict, and the urgent task is to promote an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. China calls for an end to the harassment of civilian vessels and to ensure the safety of waterways in the Red Sea.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Holds a Briefing for Chinese and Foreign Media on President Xi Jinping's Attendance at the Opening Ceremony of the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum - MOFA readout of Vice FM Deng Li’s briefing on CASCF.
Chinese, Omani AI satellite companies to cooperate on urban planning - An interesting-sounding AI win for China, which has been rare in the Middle East lately: “STAR.VISION, an AI satellite company, and its Omani partner announced here on Tuesday the development of an advanced digital twin city platform, aiming to reshape the landscape of earth observation with artificial intelligence and satellite technology.”
https://ecfr.eu/publication/east-meets-middle-chinas-blossoming-relationship-with-saudi-arabia-and-the-uae/