China is rapidly seeking to play a greater international role. It has been slowly achieving this goal over the last few decades. This week, it spread its wings by hosting Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as the President of France. In addition China appears ready to take a more forceful approach with Taiwan and it is involved in other initiatives that are designed to upend the US-led world order that has dominated since the early 1990s.
Countries in the Middle East are paying attention. Local media from Turkey to the Gulf and Iran are all heralding China’s role. This is not a small matter of a few headlines. These countries are putting China squarely on the homepage of their state media websites, in a way they no longer do when dealing with the West. While they often mention the West in terms of tensions or critique, their view of China is positive and growing.
Turkey's reaction to China's increasing role in the Middle East
TRT, the state media of Turkey noted that Iran and Saudi Arabia were hosted by China on Thursday in the “first official meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in more than seven years came a month after Tehran and Riyadh agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies by May.” Turkey sees this as a landmark meeting and it will affect Turkey-Iran and Turkey-Russia ties. Turkey has hedged its bets by partnership with Russia on a variety of issues, including energy deals. Ankara will now likely also see China’s new position as impacting its own policies.
Al-Arabiya also praised China’s role in brokering the agreement. The Gulf-based media noted that “the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] and Iran have also agreed to reopen their diplomatic missions within 60 days of resuming ties, and will proceed with the necessary measures to ensure that happens in Riyadh and Tehran, as well as in Jeddah and Mashaad, where their general consulates were previously stationed, according to SPA.” Iranian pro-regime media Tasnim also heralded the meetings in China with two key articles on Thursday.
For its part, Chinese media also praised Beijing for its “wisdom” in China’s Global Times. The same paper also highlighted how foreign media were praising China. Choosing China "came as an extension of Beijing's positive role in reaching the agreement and facilitating communication between the two countries," Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awasat newspaper cited an unidentified source in Riyadh as saying, according to Reuters. Global Times reported this report in order to burnish China’s credentials as a host.
The Iran-Saudi meetings now seem to overshadow the important visit by France’s president to China. Chinese CCTV noted “at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon for a state visit to China through Friday. Macron will also visit Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province.”
France24 said that Macron was in China to seek “to dissuade China from supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.” Macron was accompanied by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. Von der Leyen may be positioning herself to try to become the next head of NATO. This means that her attendance in the China meetings is important. Macron’s own initiatives in China are similar to his attempt in early 2022 to prevent Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron was let down by Putin. It’s unclear if he will find that China listens to his messages. Considering that China has shown no interest in restraining Russia, and instead seems to prefer having Russia create problems for the West, it appears premature of think that Macron’s initiative will bear fruit.
It’s worth noting that while France, the EU commission head, Iran and Saudi were all in China, that the US was hosting the Taiwanese leader, a visit that has caused controversy in China. Reports on Thursday portrayed the US has “defying China.” Reuters reported that China will now increase tensions with Taiwan by seeking to inspect ships in the Taiwan strait. In addition the Guardian says Taiwan is monitoring a Chinese strike group off the coast. China is conducting air craft carrier drills.
In addition, while France’s President is in China, in part, to discuss the conflict in Ukraine; Russian media highlighted how the US is increasing tensions by partnering with South Korea. Russia’s state media TASS noted that “US-led joint military drills with South Korea have turned the Korean peninsula into a huge ‘powder magazine’ that can be detonated any moment, an international security analyst said.” The article, which quoted North Korean sources, said that the drills with the US were part of the US pushing itself as an “imperialist aggressor.”
When added altogether, the rapidity with which China is doing back-to-back meetings with key countries such as France, Saudi and Iran, and the way China is positioning itself as a broker with “wisdom,” this is all to draw a contrast with the West. The US is not similarly hosting countries that are making peace. Where once the US was an architect of a peaceful world order, such as Teddy Roosevelt helping end the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, or the US role at Versailles and later in creating the UN, today Washington appears on a back foot in international relations. While the White House has said the US is “back” in terms of being part of the world order, it faces an uphill struggle for influence in some areas. The US recently hosted a Summit for Democracy in late March. While key countries such as Costa Rica, Netherlands, Zambia and South Korea took part as co-hosts, the summit doesn’t get the kind of coverage that China is getting.
China’s main challenge as it enters more forcefully onto the world stage is that countries will trust China until something goes wrong. While Saudi Arabia and Iran are looking to China, they may become disappointed. In addition Macron may be disillusioned. Eventually China will face the problems the US faced in the last century. It will begin with a lot of positive credit and capital in its favor. But each time it is not able to fulfill the hopes and dreams of countries that are running into its arms, it will find that it eventually receives the kind of criticism that US global overreach led to. There is a learning curve in international relations. China is on the rise and it will get a lot of naïve coverage that portrays it as particularly “wise” and powerful, up until it begins to show that it can’t be all things to everyone. As such, this week was an important week showcasing how China believes it can work at a fast pace to balance many different issues, from tensions with Taiwan, to working with Iran, Saudi, the EU and France.