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  • When it Comes to Iran, China is Shifting the Balance

    Amid the polemic generated by the China-GCC statement, the Chinese official news agency Xinhua announced that Vice Premier Hu Chunhua would visit Iran and the UAE next week. If the stopover in Tehran was intended as a Chinese gesture to ease tensions, the move is likely to backfire. While “Little Hu” had been expected to gain a prestigious seat in the Politburo Standing Committee during the recent National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he was instead demoted from the Politburo and is expected to be removed as Vice Premier in March 2023. Considering Xi’s triumphal visit to Riyadh, the optics surrounding Hu’s planned visit to Tehran are especially bad.

  • Perspective: US and Saudis End Rift Over Oil Production Cuts, Yemen and China

    Over the last few months US-Saudi ties have passed a series of significant tests, any of which could have done considerable long-term damage. But behind the scenes, the relationship is not only repairing, it's being reconceptualized on both sides in a way that should make it stronger.

  • Perspective: US and Saudis End Rift Over Oil Production Cuts, Yemen and China

    Over the last few months US-Saudi ties have passed a series of significant tests, any of which could have done considerable long-term damage. But behind the scenes, the relationship is not only repairing, it's being reconceptualized on both sides in a way that should make it stronger.

  • Saudi Aramco and Sinopec sign initial agreement to set up refinery in China

    Leading crude oil exporter Saudi Aramco and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) have signed an initial agreement to build a refinery and a petrochemicals plant in China. The 320,000 barrels-per-day refinery and 1.5 million tonnes-per-year petrochemical cracker complex will be in operation by the end of 2025, Aramco said in a statement on Sunday. Aramco and Sinopec, along with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), have also signed a preliminary agreement to study the feasibility of developing a petrochemicals complex to be integrated with an existing refinery in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

  • Perspective: The Saudi-China Deal Tells Us What Autocracies Want From Each Other

    “One important aspect of China’s overtures toward Saudi Arabia is China’s concern that United States venture capital investments—which have been important sources of capital and expertise for China’s technology sector—are drying up. The U.S. is currently considering new restrictions on outbound investments toward China. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has been plowing massive investments into technology companies in an attempt to diversify the Saudi economy away from fossil fuels, and China likely is exploring whether Saudi Arabia can help replace the U.S. as an investor. However, Saudi technology investments have a mixed track record at best.”

  • Can China Continue to Balance Between Saudi Arabia and Iran? 

    For instance, in 2016, Xi signed comprehensive strategic partnership agreements with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, within weeks of each other. In both 2017 and 2019, Beijing held separate military drills with Iran and Saudi Arabia, spaced only a few weeks apart, to avoid conveying the wrong message. And, as Xi concluded his Saudi Arabia trip on December 10, China’s ambassador to Tehran announced Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua would visit Tehran the week of December 12.

  • Opinion: Saudi Arabia Will Not Find Strategic Protection in China

    What should be of concern for the United States, however, is China’s potential success in buying oil and gas from Saudi Arabia and others with Chinese yuan instead of the US dollar, as Xi suggested during his visit. Not only would such a move be tantamount to a Saudi declaration of an economic breakup with the United States, but it would announce the beginning of a disengagement between Riyadh and Washington

  • China’s embrace of Saudi Arabia leaves Iran out in the cold

    During his stay in Saudi Arabia, Xi held bilateral meetings with nearly 20 Arab leaders, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters, deeming Xi's trip as China's largest and highest-level diplomatic action with the Arab world since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

  • China, Saudi, and the Future of Cross-Regional Investments

    Al-Falih also explained that Saudi Arabia and China have experienced growing cooperation over the past years, as mutual visits between the countries are becoming more frequent and mutual trade is at an all time high. Dissected in The Indian Express, “China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $87.3 billion in 2021. Chinese exports to Saudi Arabia reached $30.3 billion, while China’s imports from the kingdom totalled $57 billion.

  • China slammed in Iran over ‘unfriendly’ posturing in Riyadh

    The perception that China adopted an “unfriendly” position towards Iran during President Xi Jinping’s high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia has sparked controversy in Tehran, raising questions about relations with Asia's top economy. Officials and state outlets in Iran have reacted to joint Chinese-Arab statements, while some commentators have said the growing Riyadh-Beijing ties show that China is not a trustworthy partner—despite its long-term cooperation agreement with the Islamic Republic.