Chinese port investment in Africa and the Middle East
As I mentioned, I’m back in Abu Dhabi after a rejuvenating trip home to Canada, where I spent three weeks reconnecting with family and friends and relaxing on a beautiful lake. I did manage to get some work in beforehand, with a really interesting workshop in San Francisco. Jean-Marc Blanchard, through his shop the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, hosted a very impressive group for a workshop on Chinese overseas ports in Africa and the Middle East. We spent two days discussing Chinese investment in ports and affiliated infrastructure, with several country-specific case studies as well as some broader scene setting papers. We were also fortunate to get a keynote talk from Zhao Suisheng, who shared insights from his recent book, The Dragon Roars Back: Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese Foreign Policy. The workshop will result in a book, likely published in mid-2025.
This is the third of a set of three; the first book, Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe and the Americas: Understanding Smooth and Turbulent Seas, was published this year. The second looks at South and Southeast Asia and should be out in the fall. All in all, it makes for the deepest look into a topic that Jean-Marc was early to identify as an important trend. The expansion of Chinese influence through port investment and management is an important element of its rise as a maritime power. I’d also recommend Isaac Kardon’s work as another important contribution to understanding the implications of China as a maritime power - he joined me on The China-MENA Podcast in March and you should absolutely listen to this as well.
In the Middle East we’ve seen a lot of growth in Chinese port/industrial park project and while these have mostly been commercial initiatives, it would be naive to not see the strategic implications down the road. I wrote about this for ‘Maritime Strategies in the Middle East’, a series the Middle East Institute at National University of Singapore published in 2022. If you’re interested, you can find my article, From Haifa to Abu Dhabi: China’s Maritime Strategy in the Middle East, here. An excerpt to give you a sense of the report:
During the 2018 China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced a framework for MENA countries to partner in MSRI: the “Industrial Park–Port Interconnection, Two-Wheels Two-Wings Approach” (henceforth 2W2W).[5] Here, the “two wheels” are energy cooperation (conventional oil and gas and low-carbon energy) and the “two wings” are cooperation in technology (artificial intelligence, mobile communications, and satellite navigation) and investment and finance. This is fundamentally similar to the Shekou model, or “Port-Park-City” development model, developed by China Merchants Port Holdings and used to great effect in Chinese economic free zones such as Shenzhen, as well as in China’s economic engagement in Southeast Asia.[6] The Shekou model “entails developing adjacent industrial parks, commercial buildings, highways, free trade zones, residential area, and power plants” with the goal of developing “a larger, integrated system that helps sustain the port and is sustained by it in turn”.[7] In MENA’s case, the 2W2W emphasized four ports where China would increase its presence, and four industrial park projects at varying stages of development. The ports are:
Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone (KPFTZ) in Abu Dhabi,
Oman’s Port of Duqm,
the support base of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in Djibouti, and
Port Said in Egypt.
The industrial parks are:
Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD),
the China-Oman Industrial Park in Duqm,
the Chinese Industrial Park in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan City for Primary and Downstream Industries (JCPDI), and
the TEDA-Suez Zone in Ain Sokhna, Egypt.
I’ll provide more information about the port book as we get closer to publication, but in the meantime, if you come across any interesting data on Chinese port/industrial park investment in the region please share.