An Intervention by Any Other Name: Chinese Economic Interventionism in the MENA

• In Event: The End of Unipolarity?

Abstract

In 1954 China adopted its non-interference policy, known as the Panchsheel Treaty. The non-intervention treaty was premised on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which call for mutual respect for territorial sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality and cooperation for mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence. China’s non-intervention policy stood in sharp contrast to that of their Asian neighbors, the Soviet Union. The Soviets sought to maintain their post-war land holdings and expand their influence by promoting the spread of communism throughout Asia and South America. Despite pulling back their geopolitical ambitions briefly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia is once again active on the world stage having annexed Crimea from the Ukraine and by assisting military operations in the Middle East. At the same time China, while maintaining their non-intervention policy, has been investing billions of dollars in foreign aid and infrastructure in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In this paper, I draw on data from the China Global Investment Tracker to quantify the extent of China’s economic interventionism in the Middle East and Africa and demonstrate that Chinese investment is strategically designed to increase China’s geopolitical influence in the region while allowing them to maintain, at least technically, adherence to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Author

• Ali Nayyef, George Mason University