The upheaval inside the Muslim world since the beginning of the Arab Spring and now with the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, the war in Yemen, and its consequences are difficult phenomena to understand. This article provides a brief review of the two security challenges that China has to face in the Middle East.
The first one is related to the well-known “go global” trend that began at the beginning of this century and that touches almost all sectors of the Chinese economy. Much ink has been spilled analyzing the repercussions of the war Libya for Chinese investments and the Chinese attitude towards risk-management and risk-prevention in volatile countries. Briefly, China learned a lesson and has henceforth acted according to its economic, military and diplomatic capabilities to prevent “another Libya.” After the massive evacuation of some 30,000 Chinese citizens and the loss of assets and investments worth several billion dollars, China’s diplomacy has focused on the risk-prevention side.
The cases of Iraq, and more recently Yemen, have demonstrated that the plans for evacuation had been carefully crafted and studied. As soon as the risk reached a certain level, all Chinese expats were evacuated in an orderly and timely manner. The images of a Chinese warship docking in Yemen and the special forces protecting the Chinese and foreign civilians during the boarding showed a caring government to the Chinese at home and a confident China abroad. Indeed, when journalists asked if the U.S. government was going to follow the Chinese example to use military assets and evacuate the American citizens still in Yemen, the State Department spokesperson admitted that no similar plan was on the table.
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