China’s Emerging Role in the New Arab World

Abstract

Abstract: The Arab Spring has changed the political landscape in the Arab world. The spring which began as genuine grass-root movement designed to create more equitable social projects, was steered by Western powers and local Islamists in different directions with these powers heavily intervening to control and/or weaken Arab states. China has pursued a policy of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of Arab states, and letting the peoples decide their own future. China may have miscalculated when it allowed NATO to interfere in Libya. That intervention had catastrophic consequences for China and Libya. Consequently, China, in collaboration with Russia decided not to repeat the same experience in Syria especially since foreign intervention in this case will be even more catastrophic. China vetoed Security Council draft resolutions calling for regime change in Syria and insisted on letting the Syrians decide peacefully their future course of action. Further, China under the new leadership has suggested for the first time a four-point program to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict. The article argues that the Chinese-Russian approach to the Syrian crisis is bound to have long-term implications for the future of the Arab world. As the signs of the positive contributions of that approach are emerging, China should proceed to reinforce these contributions through a concerted approach to engage with the new regimes in the Arab world, strengthen the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, correct the imbalances of Sino-Arab trade, especially with the countries of the Arab Spring, focus on investing in these countries in labor-intensive industries, putting the four-point proposal on the agenda of Arab-Israeli negotiations, and, most importantly, deal with the question of the Israeli nuclear capabilities and the potential of Israel going to war against Iran, a scenario which will represent a major setback to the Chinese achievements in the region.