The New Evolution of China’s Diplomacy with Arab States Under the Background of the Sino- U.S. Competition: Trends and Prospects

Abstract The interaction between China and Arab countries has a long history. After entering the 21stcentury, China-Arab relations have ushered in many important stages. In July 2018, the two sides agreed to establish a strategic partnership, which has become a new historical beginning for China-Arab friendly cooperation. At the same time, Sino-US relations plummeted. The United States changed its strategic positioning towards China, strengthened its containment of China, and opened the era of Sino-U.S. strategic competition. Therefore, China-Arab relations will be in an important field of strategic competition between China and the United States, which will become an important variable affecting the development of China-Arab relations. Starting from the internal and external factors affecting China-Arab relations, this paper intends to further analyze the changes in China’s diplomatic style of becoming more active in participating in Arab affairs and diversifying the fields and modes of exchange between the two sides under the current background of great power competition, then clarify the unity of stage and long-term, response and initiative, context and totality, and theory and practice embodied in such changes. At present, China must not only recognize the strategic significance of Arab countries, but also correctly understand the strategic contraction of the United States in the Middle East, and further consolidate China-Arab relations, expand the increment of cooperation, and pay attention to each other’s core interests by strengthening the frequency of diplomacy between heads of state, strengthening the use of multilateral mechanisms, strengthening the docking of development strategies, strengthening the supply of public goods, and strengthening exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.