Remarks to a Conference of the United States Institute of Peace and Georgetown University
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
February 17, 2015 | Washington, DC [not delivered due to inclement weather]
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
February 17, 2015 | Washington, DC [not delivered due to inclement weather]
The Middle East is where Africa, Asia,
and Europe come together and where the trade routes between China,
India, and Europe converge. It has two-thirds of the world’s energy
reserves. It is also the epicenter of this planet’s increasing religious
strife. Relationships between this strategically crucial region and the
rest of the world are now undergoing a sea change. I have been asked to
speak to you about China’s likely reactions and role in the region as
this occurs.
By the Middle East, China means the
mainly Arab and Persian-inhabited areas of West Asia and North Africa.
The collapse of the post-colonial order there has coincided with China’s
return to wealth and power. We in the West often include Central Asia
in the Middle East. China does not. The Chinese see the post-Soviet
state of affairs in Central Asia — in the mainly Turkic-speaking Muslim
nations between China, Russia, and Europe — as developing satisfactorily
within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
They are nowhere near as sanguine about their ability to manage trends
and events in the Middle East.
