China’s Strategic Objectives and Influence in the Persian Gulf Region

Over the last decade, the Persian Gulf region and the broader Middle East have grown in importance in the Chinese foreign policy agenda. In addition to Beijing’s traditional concern of energy security in a US-dominated region, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) allowed Beijing to broad-base its economic engagement with the region. The Chinese narrative of supporting countries’ development paths suited to their national conditions and the notion of ‘development peace’ was framed vis-à-vis the US policy of democracy promotion through regime change and periodic focus on a human-rights agenda. The Gulf States have welcomed growing Chinese engagement as hedging against the declining role of the US, while Iran sees China as a counterweight to the US. Since the US unilateral withdrawal from the multilateral nuclear deal in 2018 and the subsequent deterioration in the regional security environment, China has put forward an alternative vision of regional security order based on common security through dialogue. However, China does not seek to replace the US and take the role of a security guarantor. Instead, it is engaged in a discourse war, especially in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, to undermine and delegitimise the US position in the region and promote China’s narrative of emerging global dynamics and world order. The Persian Gulf region is fast becoming an arena of China-US great power competition.