Follow CGSP on Social Media

Listen to the CGSP Podcast

Category: Mideast

The China-Mediterranean Observer: Assessing the Impact of the Chinese Defense Minister’s Recent Visit to Iran

We start this issue of the ChinaMed Observer reporting on the visit to Iran made by the Chinese Minister of Defence, Wei Fenghe. During the visit on April 27th Wei met with several high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, Minister of Defense General Mohammad-Reza Gharayi ...

Understanding the Middle East’s Unique Opportunities and Challenges for China

China is rapidly escalating its relationships with countries in the Middle East. However, the region still represents a tricky set of challenges for Beijing. So argues Andrea Ghiselli, a prominent watcher of China-Middle East relations at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Russian, Iranian Foreign Ministers in China For Afghan Conference

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov landed in the eastern Chinese city of Tunxi in Anhui province on Tuesday to take part in a foreign ministers' meeting for the seven countries that border Afghanistan. This is the first time ...

China’s Mideast Special Envoy Visits Morocco in the Latest Stop of His Low-Key Regional Tour

China's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun (left), traveled from Khartoum to Rabat late last week where he held talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourtia (right) in what appears to be a low-key meet 'n greet regional tour.

China’s Special Mideast Envoy Meets With Sudan Leader

Zhai Jun, China’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, met on Tuesday with the head of Sudan’s army and the leader of the October 25 military coup that plunged the country into crisis, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. Zhai’s trip is part ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G7’s New Infrastructure Initiative Could Strengthen China’s Global South Game: Experts

The G7’s new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), a $600 billion plan to build infrastructure across the Global South and counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), could have the effect of improving how Chinese companies do business and could end up improving the BRI itself, according to development experts. 

Some acknowledged that the BRI has been controversial for its environmental and debt impacts. But they also pointed out ...

Does the Flurry of Chinese Mideast Diplomacy Point to a Shift in Policy and a Tilt-Away From Africa? 

The frenetic pace of Chinese diplomacy with Persian Gulf countries in 2022 is prompting widespread speculation that Beijing is placing a higher priority on its relations with Mideast countries, possibly at the expense of Africa. Contrasting views on this issue emerged ...

An Update on Chinese Diplomacy in the Middle East With Jonathan Fulton

It's been a frenetic start of the year in Chinese diplomacy in the Middle East. Right after he returned from a five-nation tour of Indian Ocean states, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted half a dozen foreign ministers from Persian Gulf ...

Three Down, Three to Go: Wang Yi Meets With Mideast Foreign Ministers and Representatives

Like a high-stakes version of speed dating, Persian Gulf foreign ministers and the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) met one after the other with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the eastern city of Wuxi outside of Shanghai.  The ...

China’s Delicate Mideast Balancing Act on Display This Week

With the visits by Iranian and Saudia Arabian foreign ministers book-ended this week, China is demonstrating how it navigates the Persian Gulf's bitter rivalries. Although Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was characteristically vague about the details of Iranian ...

HRW: Saudi Arabia Preparing to Deport Two Uyghur Men Back to China

Two Uyghur exiles currently jailed in Saudi Arabia have reportedly been told to prepare for their deportation back to China, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). It's not clear if HRW issued the statement about Nurmemet Rozi (Nuermaimaiti on his Chinese passport) ...
Page 1 of 212