by Abby Liebing at The Western Journal
For the past decade, while the U.S. and other world powers have been embroiled in the Middle East, China has been largely diplomatically neutral and militarily absent.
But this spring, the U.S. learned that China was building a suspected military facility port in the United Arab Emirates, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
The UAE is one of the U.S.’s closest Middle Eastern allies, so when this Chinese action was discovered, the Biden administration warned the Emiratis that this could threaten ties between the UAE and the U.S.
After meetings and visits from U.S. officials, construction was stopped, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources.
There have been suspicions over the years that China would eventually try to assert power in the Middle Eastern region. Many expected it would happen in the Persian Gulf.
“For the past half-century, the United States has essentially dominated international waters in the Persian Gulf uncontested by any Great Power. As in the South China Sea and in the Bab el-Mandeb, however, [Chinese President] Xi may have ambitions to challenge the United States and assert its military influence over yet another strategic chokepoint,” the American Enterprise Institute said in 2020.
The U.S. has also normally made the assumption that the Gulf Cooperation Council would follow its lead, as America has relied on close alliance of the U.S. and the GCC.
“Too often, the State Department has assumed that where it leads, Gulf Cooperation Council members would follow. Arab Gulf states might be frustrated with Washington, but they understood the threat from Tehran meant they had little choice but to grin and bear American arrogance,” AEI said.
But over the past year few years…
Continue Reading