It seems that West Asia is the new go-to place for the two economic rivals — the US and China. Saudi Arabia, West Asia’s biggest economic power, in particular, is the at centre of the global rivalry.
Just days after hosting the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the oil-rich kingdom played host to the largest Chinese-Arab business gathering in Riyadh.
As per a Bloomberg report, the two-day business gathering, which ended on Monday, made two things clear to the world.
While Saudi officials spoke about integrating Chinese businesses into the Arab World, Chinese executives said they were ready to de-Americanise the oil-rich kingdom.
Speaking at the gathering, Saudi Arabia’s investment minister Khalid al-Falih sought to place his country as a bridge between China and the larger Arab world.
“The time has come, in my view, for China to be a principal investment partner in the Arab world’s development drive,” he said.
China’s growing clout in the oil-rich West Asia is the result of the US reducing its focus on the region in the last decade.
Moreover, the recent thaw in the Saudi-Iran relationship, which was aided by the Chinese, has only consolidated China’s position in the oil-rich but politically sensitive region.
China is already the number one buyer of Saudi oil, which makes up 18% of the country’s total oil purchases.
China is also Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner. Last year, the bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and China stood at $116 billion.
However, Saudi Arabia has not been a major investor in China since its top sovereign wealth funds mostly opt for the US and Europe, where markets are deep and rules transparent.
But China seems determined to attract investments from Saudi Arabia and the larger Arab world. President Xi Jinping’s landmark trip to the kingdom in December 2022 was a clear indication of China’s growing interest in the region. And the Arabs seem willing to do business with the Chinese.
“Now is the best time for Arab money to get into China because Arabs missed the first stage of the Chinese miracle,” Karim Alwadi, co-founder of Beltway Group, which co-invests with Chinese companies in middle eastern infrastructure projects, told Bloomberg.
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