Global Times: China is not looking for a US replacement in West Asia
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently said that China opposes the statement that there is a “power vacuum” in the Middle East that needs to be filled, despite the US’s hasty withdrawal from the region in 2021, IRNA reported Monday. It has caused chaos in the region.
Six Middle Eastern countries, including major countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, sent senior diplomats to China in the first month of 2022, with the aim of seeking greater and deeper cooperation or strengthening existing partnerships.
Chinese analysts say the weakening US presence in the region has raised growing concerns among countries in the region, and they have found that relations with China will be significant for the region in the future.
Chinese experts note that China’s move to strengthen relations with the Middle East is not based on hegemonic aspirations, but on mutual interests and mutual respect. China is not seeking a replacement for the US role in the region, and the region does not need major foreign powers to intervene in regional affairs because they must learn to solve their own problems.
After meeting with the foreign ministers of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Turkey on Saturday, Wang told the media that the Middle East has a long history, unique cultures and many natural resources, but at the same time has long been plagued by interference. Foreigners are also affected.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain and the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council arrived in Beijing last week at the invitation of the Saudi government to attend a joint council meeting with China.
He stressed that China has always supported the Middle East to achieve stability in order to accelerate the development of the region. We believe that the people of the Middle East are the masters of the Middle East. There is never a “power vacuum” and there is no need for outside intervention.
Meanwhile, Yin Gang, a researcher at the Institute for West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said some American politicians wanted China to fill the power vacuum they wanted after the US withdrawal, and found that US intervention in the Middle East was more than It has its advantages, it has caused trouble.
He added: “They hope that China will repeat the mistake of the United States and get into a complicated situation in the Middle East.”
According to the report, the Western media has exaggerated in recent years about China’s growing influence in the Middle East along the “belt and road” route. The media is trying to tell the story of China’s “hegemony” and growing dominance to replace the United States in the region.
“The Middle East is a place where its people have not been able to control their own destiny for a long time and have instead witnessed control by foreign powers,” Li Shaoshian, director of the China Institute of Arabic Studies, told the Global Times.
He added: “The reason for this is that there is no local power that can solve local problems effectively.”
“Under the ideological orders of neoliberalism, the great Middle East projects proposed by the United States after 9/11 have had catastrophic consequences,” Lee said. He added that Middle Eastern countries must find ways to solve their challenges.
According to the Chinese newspaper, the difficulty of the region’s countries in achieving independence and real development lies in effective resistance to foreign intervention, as the United States will continue to intervene in the region despite its declining presence.
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