China’s Interest in Gaza: Trading Israel for the Rest
机场高速中巴国旗 N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Chinese interest in the Middle East boils down to a single word: oil. China has investments in the Middle East and encourages countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as well as the expanded BRICS grouping. However, all of these economic and diplomatic efforts stem from a single source: China is the world’s largest importer of oil, and Beijing wants to ensure an uninterrupted and cheap supply of energy.
China has become the world’s largest consumer and importer of oil. At the same time, Xi Jinping’s vision for the People’s Republic is to surpass the US economically, militarily, and diplomatically by the year 2049. To do this,
