China’s Relations with Arab Gulf States

Abstract

Arab Gulf states are important for China and play significant roles because of their geo-strategic location, huge reserve of oil and gas, fast and steady growth of economy with rapid expansion of market for consumer and merchandise goods which China has a plenty of them. The area was, however, out of the radar of Chinese attention until recently as Beijing was preoccupied with other parts of the world. The paper focuses on China’s multilevel interests in economic, trade and investments in strategic sectors as well as steady and guaranteed supply of oil and gas from the region. The findings of the paper are: Economic ties between China and GCC countries have increased significantly since the mid-1990s and are expected to grow rapidly in future; Oil and gas dominate China’s import items from the Gulf and Saudi Arabia has become the largest supplier and will remain so in near future; As China intends to increase its influence and play an increasingly important strategic roles in the region Beijing is focusing on getting involved in new and strategic sectors like, nuclear energy, aerospace, communication, infrastructure building and so on; China’s ultimate politico-military and security goals and objectives in the region are to be gradually involved in the multi-billion dollar military, security and strategic sectors of arms market not by challenging or going into direct conflict with the West, particularly to the US who are currently dominating the market, rather by using the trust and supports of the leaderships in the region.