Michael Doran on China’s Drive for Middle Eastern Supremacy

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last year, a former Obama-era Defense Department official testified before Congress about Chinese strategy in the Middle East, saying “China’s strategy in the Middle East is driven by its economic interests...China...does not appear interested in substantially deepening its diplomatic or security activities there.” This view certainly sums up conventional foreign-policy wisdom, but, write the Hudson Institute scholars Michael Doran and Peter Rough, it couldn’t be more wrong.

In an extended essay published in Tablet, Doran and Rough demonstrate that “China is very actively engaged in a hard-power contest with the United States,” in the Middle East. The outcome of this great-power competition will have tremendous implications for the global economy, human rights, and U.S. interests in the region and around the globe.

In this podcast, Dr. Doran joins Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver for an extended conversation on this important piece. They explore China’s goals in the region, how the People’s Republic uses Russia and Iran to advance its goals, the military implications of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s horrific persecution of the Uighurs, and much more.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	For years, policymakers in Washington saw a kind of strategic convergence between the commercial interests of China and the commercial interests of the United States.
0:17.9	And this kind of thinking went on.
0:20.2	Market reforms leading to the establishment
0:22.4	of commercial freedom in China would lead to the gradual democratization of China. That didn't work.
0:28.5	And while happy to take advantage of the economic prosperity brought to China from its integration
0:34.8	in the global market, China has also embarked on an aggressive strategy
0:39.1	of expansion, challenging America's role as the world's dominant power. The arena for this
0:44.6	challenge is the Middle East, and China is advancing toward the Middle East with great determination
0:50.1	and focus. It seems like Russia is the strategic force behind Syria and Iran, but a new essay
0:57.1	argues that China calls the shots, utilizing Russian and Iranian forces. China's Belt and Road
1:03.3	initiative has already shown itself as having far-reaching military consequences alongside its role
1:09.9	in energy and trade. In short, when you zoom out
1:13.4	and look at the world from Beijing's point of view, you see that China is aggressively challenging
1:18.4	America and it's time for the United States and its Middle Eastern allies to wake up to the
1:24.3	strategic shifts that have already occurred and the ones that are well underway.
1:28.5	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest today is Michael Duran
1:33.4	of the Hudson Institute, and he, along with his Hudson colleague, Peter Rao, are the authors of
1:38.9	China's Emerging Middle Eastern Kingdom, published in August 2020 in Tablet. If you enjoyed this conversation,
1:45.2	you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you
1:50.8	leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this
1:56.1	or any of our other podcast episodes at podcast at tikfafund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more
2:03.1	about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website, tikfafund.org, and follow us on Facebook and
	...

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