ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies five pathways that have defined China’s attempts to respond to the Gulf security environment. First, Beijing tries to avoid a cold war with the US in the Gulf. Second, China’s multilateral efforts at resolving regional conflicts offer a contrast to US hegemonism. Third, Beijing encourages the Gulf countries to apply a hedging policy: maintain security partnerships with the US while maintaining political and economic partnerships with China, rejecting binary alignment choices. Fourth, China proposes collective security for “a Community of Shared Future for Mankind” and is against the US-led collective defense practice. Fifth, China seeks pragmatic cooperation with all Gulf countries and is against the US politicization of Beijing’s high-tech cooperation with the Arab countries. China’s zero-enemy policy has so far successfully de-linked the global cold war with the Gulf cold war, and has avoided the US-led Middle East Strategic Alliance targeting China.
