Since our special issue on China last year, Middle East Policy has continued to cover the East Asian giant’s play for hegemony in the region. This week, we follow up with a new, open-access article: Yitzhak Shichor’s detailed argument that while Beijing has rhetorically sided with Hamas and the Palestinian cause since the October 7 attacks, it has been taking pains to preserve its economic ties with Israel.
This contribution to the Spring 2025 journal offers a wealth of statistics to back Shichor’s claim that Israel’s position in China’s trade with the region is out of proportion to its size. For example, while Israel’s overall trade turnover with China between 2021 and 2023 ranked behind most Gulf states, “its 2022 trade turnover was 40 percent more than Egypt’s, and its exports to China were more than eight times greater—despite its having less than a 10th of Egypt’s population.” Israel’s importance to Chinese activity in the region is further supported by a range of data on investment, labor exports, military defense cooperation, and innovation partnerships.
China’s strategy not to take sides in a polarized Middle East, but to erode American influence through engagements with all players, has led the United States to try to drive a wedge between the two. “Washington’s pressure on Israel, more than on other regional countries, to dilute its relations with the People’s Republic is the ultimate indication of Israel’s exceptional role in China’s Middle East policy,” Shichor concludes. “It also suggests that much, or even most, of Beijing’s slandering of Israel is intentionally directed at the United States.”
The Spring 2025 issue of Middle East Policy is anchored by the open-access “Myth Busting in a Post-Assad Syria.” The journal’s 163rd installment further examines Saudi Arabia’s potential security deal with the United States, including Israel’s reaction to a proposed Saudi nuclear capability, the China factor that motivates Washington’s pursuit of an accord, and whether the region could become a WMD-free zone. Rounding out the lineup, we analyze peace building in postwar Yemen, demographic change and social cohesion in Iraq after the war against ISIS (open access), and Pakistan’s security challenges since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan.
Readers can find the Winter 2024 issue through this link, featuring M.T. Samuel’s analysis of the Gaza war and Palestinian dispossession, which is still free to read, even without a subscription. The journal’s special releases on the post-October 7 conflicts, Israel’s Wars and The Gaza War, remain vital sources.
Middle East Policy, Spring 2025
SYRIA, GAZA, AND STIRRINGS OF A NEW ORDER
Myth Busting in a Post-Assad Syria
Rob Geist Pinfold
Turkey’s Long Game in Syria: Moving beyond Ascendance
Şaban Kardaş
Saudi Arabia and Iran: Spoilers or Enablers of Conflict?
Banafsheh Keynoush
Out of Proportion: Israel’s Paradox in China’s Middle Eastern Policy
Yitzhak Shichor
THE US-SAUDI PACT AND NUCLEAR SECURITY
How to Address the Saudi Nuclear Program? An Israeli Dilemma
Niv Farago
The China Factor in US-Saudi Talks for a Defense Pact
Ghulam Ali, Peng Nian
Negotiating the Impossible? A WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East
Robert Mason
CIVIL WARS AND THEIR AFTERSHOCKS
Local Participatory Development Models for Postwar Reconstruction in Yemen
Asher Orkaby, Afrah Al-Ahmadi
Demographic Change and Social Cohesion in Post-Islamic State Iraq
Omran Omer Ali, Nazar Ameen Mohammed, Aurélie Broeckerhoff
The Taliban-TTP Nexus and Pakistan’s Rising Security Challenges
Shahid Ali, Raj Verma
BOOK REVIEWS
Florian Weigand, Waiting for Dignity: Legitimacy and Authority in Afghanistan
Reviewed by Sajjad Ahmed
Karel Černý, Instability in the Middle East: Structural Changes and Uneven Modernisation 1950–2015
Reviewed by Alper Çakır
Biden’s Gaza Failure, the Syrian Revolution, and the Folly of US Middle East Policy
Review essay by A.R. Joyce