Is China Changing the Rules in the Middle East?

How is China navigating the volatile politics of the Middle East without stepping into the traps of hard power and intervention? In this episode of Mapping Global China Conversations, we speak with Professor Andrea Ghiselli, a lecturer in international politics at the University of Exeter and Head of Research at the ChinaMed Project.

Drawing on deep expertise and fieldwork, Ghiselli unpacks China’s cautious yet consequential approach to the Middle East—balancing diplomacy, energy interests, and a desire to shape a multipolar order without replicating U.S.-style power projection.

Our Guest Andrea Ghiselli – Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Exeter; Head of Research at the ChinaMed Project; author of Protecting China’s Interests Overseas (Oxford University Press).

 

Discussion Topics

✅ China's role as a “balanced” actor in a region of instability

✅ The limits of strategic ambiguity and “win-win” diplomacy

✅ Why China prefers law enforcement cooperation over military deployments

✅ What Middle Eastern powers expect from their partnerships with China

✅ Iran, Israel, and the geopolitics of energy: strategic alignment or dependency?

✅ How Beijing views regional fragmentation—and what it hopes to avoid

 

💡Key Takeaway China is not trying to replace the U.S. in the Middle East—but it is actively reshaping the rules of engagement. Through diplomatic finesse, energy trade, and selective security cooperation, Beijing is asserting influence while minimizing risk. Yet the future remains uncertain, shaped as much by regional inertia as by great-power competition.

 

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