ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to provide a distinctive perspective on China's Middle Eastern relations. My interest in the topic of Chinese Studies, and subsequently in Sino-Middle Eastern relations, was prompted by my association with Chinese Studies at Missouri State University where I taught for two years, 2005–07, and where I became a member of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS). My friends and colleagues at the association, particularly Greg Moore and Dennis Hickey, encouraged me to research Sino- Middle Eastern relations, given the growing interest in the topic. Since then, I have been studying, collecting material and interacting with Chinese and other scholars on Chinese Studies. The idea of expanding my research into a manuscript came from previous collaboration on two book chapters and an article, one with Dennis Hickey and Baogang Guo's book Dancing with the Dragon, published by Lexington in 2010, another chapter with Shaun Breslin in his book Handbook of China's International Relations published by Routledge in 2010, in addition to an article published in the Journal of Chinese Political Science in 2009 entitled the Political Economy of Sino-Middle Eastern Relations.
