QATARI Silk Road
a new foreign policy
Over the last year, Xi’s dreams of a reinvigorated relationship between China and the Middle East have slowly started to take on real form. Described by many as a series of unfulfillable promises, China’s economic imperialism is proving to be an increasingly lucrative diplomatic approach to regional cooperation. The “Silk Road Economic Belt” is an opportunity for China to develop its own, far-reaching hegemonic sphere of influence, rivalling that of the U.S., and supporting that of Europe.
Xi's Dreams Become Reality in South China
September 3, 2015
Already, cities across China are flocking to the Middle East to open communication lines, establish relationships and trade links. The Middle East represents a lucrative market for China’s fast-developing high-end manufacturing sector.
In December, the Made-In-China Fair will be held in Qatar to promote the pervasion of Chinese-made products in the Middle East. Since controversially winning the the bid to hold the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar will also be a prime market for Chinese construction and infrastructure projects, estimated to be worth 205 trillion USD over the next four years.
South Chinese cities, already actively involved in the Maritime Silk Route, will also be actively involved in the One Belt One Road strategy in the Middle East. The southern city of Foshan has already taken steps to cooperate with the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and held a conference introducing the Qatar market to local enterprises. These cities have also already begun taking steps towards drawing other members of ASEAN into China’s circle of influence. With delegations from Foshan visiting Indonesia, Thailand and India in the last six months alone, the message is clear.
Xi’s Silk Road is happening.
Between the overland Silk Road, which aims to connect Shanghai to Berlin, and the Maritime Silk Road, which aims to reinvigorate traditional ocean trade routes between China and its South East Asian neighbours, China has instituted a large-scale regional shift in the space of several months
The New Silk Road project aims at no less than a revolutionary change in the economic map of the world. It is also seen by many as the first shot in a battle between east and west for dominance in Eurasia.
Robert Berke, Business Insider (May, 2015)
The Economist believes that this push into the Middle East is wholly based on China’s continued thirst for energy resources and fossil fuels, the pursuit of which has brought China closer to globally ostracised nations like Russia in recent months. Such an argument is persuasive, China is the world’s largest oil importer and nearly half of these imports arrive from Middle Eastern states. However, China’s New Silk Road initiative is as much about balance-of-power politics as its is resource management.
The fast-pace of Xi’s Silk Road plans have precipitated the development of various institutions aiming to span the needs of a more integrated economic region. Alongside large-scale infrastructure projects reconnecting the region, China has the option of cooperation with institutions like the Eurasian Economic Union, which currently includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia. Such cooperation could in theory create a free-trade zone spanning from Istanbul to Shanghai, connecting Europe to China and effectively negating the involvement of the U.S. in Eurasian trade.
In April Qatar opened the Middle East’s first clearing bank to handle transactions in RMB. The internationalisation of the RMB is yet another step in the direction of a deteriorating U.S. hegemony, negating the necessity of the dollar in international transactions.
Qatar can also benefit from the internationalization of the RMB, strengthening links that already exist with China. China itself is an emerging trading partner of Qatar, which makes it quite reasonable for the latter to diversify part of its large pool of foreign reserves away from American dollars.
Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, The Diplomat (June, 2015)
