With yet another Chinese envoy touring the Mideast, many people are scratching their heads, wondering what Beijing is trying to accomplish with its diplomacy in the region.
Many Arab and Gulf governments see the Chinese as “the new kid on the block” and aren’t really taken seriously by most stakeholders in the region as a credible diplomatic broker, explained Jonathan Fulton, an associate professor of political science at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, and someone who’s widely regarded among the world’s top China-Mideast scholars.