China’s Relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa under Xi Jinping

• In Event: Dimensions of Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

How have China’s relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa changed since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012? Over the last four years, China’s Belt and Road (BRI) has become a foreign policy priority for Xi’s administration. This paper explores the ways in which the Belt and Road interacts with China’s overall approach towards the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa under Xi. It also compares China’s current BRI initiative and overall approach to these regions under Xi with past Chinese leaders Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin. Particular attention is paid to the impact of Xi’s domestic policy priorities on China’s foreign policy towards these regions under his leadership. Foreign policy tools examined include the Belt and Road, China’s Cooperation Forums with these regions (the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum), top leader visits, strategic partnerships, special economic zones, agricultural demonstration centers, and China’s base in Djibouti. Conclusions are based on Chinese government documents, leader speeches, and scholarly analysis as well as extensive field interviews with scholars and government officials in China, Europe (U.K., France, Belgium, and the Netherlands), the Middle East (Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar), Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa), and Washington, DC.

Author

• Dawn C. Murphy, Air War College