ABSTRACT
In Chapter 7, Sarah Kaiser-Cross and Mao Yufeng explain China’s increasing activism and influence in the Middle East and the Arab world. China’s increasing dependency on oil imports from the Middle East and concerns about its own large Muslim minority have led Beijing to mobilize both substantial hard and soft power resources to promote economic, political, and cultural relations with countries in the region. Kaiser-Cross and Mao write that Beijing has prioritized economic interests, worked to avoid confrontation with the United States in the region, and studiously avoided taking sides in intra-regional conflicts such as the Saudi–Iran rivalry and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Still, as in other regions, as China’s presence expands it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a strictly neutral position.
