Iraq is an example of how recent instability in American-Middle Eastern relations has opened the door for China to expand its influence in the region via investment projects and an exploitation of local politics.

The future Middle East order will be characterized by interactions among regional actors instead of external ones.

China and the US have different positions on the Syria situation, but they share many common interests too, including restoring peace and stability in the region, cracking down on extremists and rebuilding regional order and the balance of power in the Middle East. The countries differ over how to achieve these goals.

Forty percent of China’s total ten vetoes ever casted at the UN Security Council have been on Syria, making it the most-vetoed issue of all time for China. The four vetoes and most recent abstention from the French-drafted resolution underscore China’s increasingly assertive stance on state sovereignty, territorial integrity and its repulsion to foreign interference.

The China-Israel Financial Protocol ('Financial Protocol'), signed 20 years ago has already reached a cumulative value of 2.6 Billion USD to date. The Financial Protocol facilitates the introduction of advanced high-tech Israeli goods and services to China by providing government insurance to reduce risks and financial costs. In this respect, the Financial Protocol sets a good example for the implementation of the Road and Belt Initiative, although it is not specifically included in the scope of diplomacy.

China has neither the military infrastructure nor the political will to strike IS forces on the ground in the Middle East. But China continues to build its military capacity and is by no means looking for a “free ride” in the Middle East.

At a time when the conflict within Islam has sharpened between Sunnis and Shias and between fundamentalists and reformers, the House of Saud — the world’s No. 1 promoter of radical Islamic extremism — is increasingly playing the sectarian card, even at the risk of deepening the schisms. This aggressive activism carries significant implications for U.S. interests, from the Middle East to Asia.

The China Dream and the China Model are complementary in Xi’s strategic vision, of which relations with the developing world are a central part. Developments in the Middle East and Africa show how large a factor China now is in economic globalization, but while the China Model is based on noninterference in politics, Mel Gurtov argues that separating economics from politics is a challenge.

China “should not be absent”, the president said on his recent three-nation visit to the region. China sees development as a means for maintaining stability, and cooperation as a guarantee for security. The Belt and Road initiative is a vital tool for progress on all of these fronts.

Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, China has been pursuing its own version of strategic rebalancing in foreign policy. China aims to re-position itself as “a state in the middle”, acting as a bridge among the developed and developing countries and maximizing the strategic space. If Chinese diplomacy and Beijing’s “connectivity” can ease the crisis in the Middle East, the achievement would affirm the nation’s rise to great-power status.