Degang Sun & Yahia H. Zoubir
Journal of Contemporary China Volume 24, Issue 95, 2015
Since the outbreak of the Arab revolts in late 2010, China has adhered
to its ‘business-first’ economic diplomacy towards the Arab countries, a
policy driven by China's ongoing geoeconomic interests. The
ten-year-old China–Arab States Cooperation Forum serves as the nucleus
for China's economic diplomacy in the region. The Chinese authorities
have also initiated interagency coordination and central–local
governments' power sharing in order to pursue this diplomacy
successfully. However, while its economic diplomacy may be evolving,
China, unlike what it has achieved in Black Africa, seems to have failed
to develop strategic, political and cultural exchanges with its Arab
counterparts. The intertwined geopolitical and geoeconomic factors that
have emerged since the Arab revolts might make it harder for China to
reap economic benefits while shelving political entanglement to sustain
this economic diplomacy in the longer run.
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