Xi to visit to Saudi Arabia
Xi Jinping, China’s President, is said to be due to visit Saudi Arabia next week, amid speculation Beijing is trying to counter warming ties between the kingdom and the United States.
It would be nearly a month after a trip by US President Joe Biden, who made an unsuccessful bid to convince his country’s Middle East ally to lift its oil exports to lower the price per barrel amid global shortages.
Washington has long been Riyadh’s superpower patron of choice, but insatiably oil-hungry China — currently Saudi’s largest importer — has been waiting in the wings.
Beijing has positioned itself as a non-judgmental partner to Riyadh.
While the United States tried to diplomatically isolate the ultraconservative kingdom over the murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, Xi made
Xi Jinping
the strategic decision to stay quiet.
It would be his first international visit since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Beijing observers say if Xi is indeed visiting Saudi he would be expecting a warm welcome.
According to the Guardian, which first reported the trip, Xi will be greeted by a gala reception similar to the one held for Donald Trump on his first state visit as US President, one that Biden was denied.
Economic relations between Saudi and China have strengthened as part of a regionwide trend.
In 2000, Chinese trade with the Middle East and Africa stood at about US$15 billion ($23b), while by 2021 it reached $284b.
“That jump was driven in no small part by China’s voracious appetite for the region’s energy, as well as its quest for markets for its exports in the region and beyond,” Barbara Leaf, United States assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told a Senate hearing on China’s presence in the Middle East last week.
Leaf said there was “no question” that the region has become a “more competitive” environment for the US, which “creates conditions where China can coerce countries” on issues ranging from Taiwan to its oppression of the Uyghurs.
Telegraph Group Ltd