Chinese Prime Minister Prime Minister Li Qiang is arriving in Saudi Arabia today on the first leg of his September 10-13 visit to the Gulf States. Later, he will fly the UAE to hold talks with the Emirati leadership in the UAE.

The invitation extended to Li by the two Middle East giants is indicative of China’s growing clout and proactive involvement in the heart of the Muslim world.

Earlier, in July 2024, China hosted 14 Palestinian factions in Beijing to bring about the biggest rapprochement in the history of the Palestine Revolution, since all the factions agreed on a future Government of National Unity.

In March 2024, China, speaking at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing on Gaza genocide, fully supported the “right of armed resistance by a people living under occupation to foreign military occupation”, as being in line with international law. Hence, the Palestinian armed resistance against Israel was fully justified by the Chinese, which is a principled position that also applies to Occupied Kashmir. This follows the earlier historic rapprochement brokered by China between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023. These significant developments demonstrate the emergence of China as a proactive political player in the Middle East, which was earlier a predominantly ‘American domain’.

Pakistan has indirectly and directly contributed to this enhanced Chinese role in the Muslim World. It was in March 2022 that Foreign Minister Wang Yi was invited to address the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Conference of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad which was an historic first for China. During his speech on March 22, Wang talked about the “long standing relationship between China and the Muslim world” and reaffirmed that Beijing would continue supporting the Muslim countries in their quest for political independence and economic development.

This follows the earlier historic rapprochement brokered by China between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023.

Historically, China has always been etched in the Muslim consciousness as a country with a great civilization based on knowledge, learning and development.  For example, there is a famous saying of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him), 1400 years ago, which urged the Muslims to “seek knowledge, even if you have to go to China”, implying that although China was physically far away from Arabia, but it was a land of learning.  Soon after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, a professor of the prestigious American Harvard University, Samuel Huntington, talked of a ‘clash of civilizations’ in which he suggested that the Western civilization would be at odds with both the Islamic and the Confucian civilizations.  Interestingly, he also talked of a united front of the Islamic and Confucian civilizations.

In his speech at the conference on “Dialogue among Civilizations” held in Beijing in May 2019, President Xi Jinping mentioned the contribution of the Islamic civilization to “enrich the Chinese civilization” and also referred to the Holy Mosque in Makkah as well as the travels to China of the Muslim explorer, Ibn Batuta, who wrote favorably on China and the Chinese people.

China has a long-standing relationship with the Muslim world. After the Chinese Revolution in 1949, Pakistan was the first country in the Muslim world to recognize the People’s Republic of China in May 1950.  The first institutional interaction between China and the Muslim countries took place at the 1955 Afro-Asian Summit in Bandung, Indonesia.  It was hosted by the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia. Pakistan and China were among the countries attending this historic summit.  China shares its borders with 14 countries, five of which are members of the OIC and none of these have border disputes with China.

In January 1965, when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed, China was among the first countries to recognize it.  And in the 1960s and early 1970s, China also provided material support and aid to various Muslim nations that were facing economic and political pressures. It included Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, South Yemen and Egypt.

In January 1965, when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed, China was among the first countries to recognize it. 

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China also has been in the forefront of countries that have a proactive approach to the Muslim world.  Beijing, for example, presented a Middle East peace plan, which was unveiled when President of the Palestine Authority Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu during their visits to China in May 2013.

During his meeting with the two leaders, Xi presented the four-point peace plan that envisaged an independent Palestine State alongside Israel, based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.  While recognizing Israel’s right to exist, the document called for an end to building Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of Palestine, cessation of violence against civilians and termination of Israel’s blockade of Gaza.  It also suggested resolving the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and sought more humanitarian assistance while underlining that these are “necessary for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestinian Authority”.

At the same time, Beijing also has been principled on the issue of Syria, urging an end to both interference in Syrian affairs and the civil war.  In January 2022, China invited Syria to be part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

China and Saudi Arabia are engaged in discussions to have their oil trade done partially in Chinese yuan.

China today is the largest importer of crude oil in the world and almost 50% of its supply comes from the Muslim countries of the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE.

Saudi Arabia also invited Xi to visit the Kingdom in November 2022, where he received a red-carpet welcome in marked contrast to the cold reception accorded to President Biden in July 2022. And there have been media reports that China and Saudi Arabia are engaged in discussions to have their oil trade done partially in Chinese yuan – also known as RMB.

Defense cooperation between China and the Muslim world is also expanding, as Chinese advanced jetfighter J10C is now in use in countries like Pakistan and the UAE.  In January 2022, China and Iran signed a comprehensive “Strategic Accord” which will run for 25 years, worth well over $400 billion.

Meanwhile, the centerpiece of China’s relationship with the Muslim world today is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Interestingly, the BRI was launched in two phases by Xi, with two important speeches in two different Muslim countries. In September 2013, during the speech in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, he announced the launch of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, he revealed the Maritime Silk Road – the two pillars of the BRI.

At the OIC conference on March 22, Wang said that “China is investing over 400 billion dollars in nearly 600 projects across the Muslim world under the BRI.” He underlined that “China is ready to work with the Islamic countries to promote a multi-polar world, democracy in international relations and diversity of human civilization, and make unremitting efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind”. And on the issue of Palestine and Kashmir, Wang said that “China shares the same aspirations as the OIC seeking a comprehensive and just settlement of these disputes”.

Another example of close ties between China and the Muslim world, was the February 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics where a majority of Muslim countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar had high-level representation, despite the boycott called by certain Western nations.  And on March 30, 2022, China hosted an important conference of neighboring countries of Afghanistan which was well attended.

There is a shift in the global balance of economic and political power away from West to the East.

China has also received support from Muslim countries on the issue of Xinjiang at the UN Human Rights Council.  In fact, in July 2019, when a group of 22 nations led by the West sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Council criticizing China on Xinjiang, not a single Muslim country was a signatory, while another 37 countries submitted a letter on the same issue defending Chinese policies.  These countries included all the six Gulf countries plus Pakistan, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

Given the changing geopolitical scenario, where there is a shift in the global balance of economic and political power away from West to the East, followed by US efforts for a New Cold War to ‘contain’ China, the thrust for cooperation and connectivity has a broad resonance in the Muslim world. The Muslim countries see their relations with China as a strategic bond to promote both stability and security and economic development and the BRI has become the principal vehicle in the promotion of such an approach.

In the coming years, China’s partnership with the Muslim world is likely to be strengthened given the mutuality of interests and the convergence of worldviews in upholding a world order based on international law, the UN Charter and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. This is in keeping with the resurgence of the Global South, which was evident in China hosting a summit of 50+ African leaders in Beijing, a diplomatic feat unmatched by any other non-African country. All Muslim African countries participated in the Beijing Summit. Basically, in the context of the New Cold War unleashed by the US, China is successful in outflanking the US in an area that Washington once considered its ‘domain’, which is now no more the case.