乐鱼 体育

COVID-19 is the newest tie that binds both China and the Middle East. This burgeoning relationship, once based in bilateral oil trade, has been gaining pace in recent years as China has championed its Belt and Road Initiative and the countries of the region have turned towards diversification in both economics and external political support. This partnership has entered a new chapter as COVID-19 has gripped the world. The past few months of Chinese-Middle Eastern discourse have been characterized by an outpouring of mutual support paired with deliveries of medical aid. The seemingly sturdy bridge of Chinese-Middle Eastern trade has been rocked by fluctuating Chinese consumption of oil and the chaotic price drops. What impact has COVID-19 had on Chinese-Middle Eastern ties, and what have the countries involved done to mitigate the fallout? 

Selected Quotes

Jonathan Fulton

鈥淲hen the COVID crisis started in Wuhan, in the Gulf you鈥檇 see a lot of these partner countries sending aid, sending medical equipment, sending money to China 鈥� China was a recipient of support. Once China seemed to get it under control in Wuhan and [COVID-19] started to spread first in Iran and then throughout the rest of the Gulf, that dynamic changed. China became a donor.鈥� 13:05

鈥淭he relationship often gets described as 鈥淐hinese consumer products for oil,鈥� and I think that鈥檚鈥� a very limited way of looking at it. China鈥檚 got a huge financial infrastructure in the Middle East; they鈥檝e got a lot of banks, a lot of investment companies, they have a very big expatriate population 鈥� beyond that, they鈥檙e also the biggest external source of FDI to the Middle East, the biggest trade partner of most countries in the Middle East. So I think what鈥檚 happening, especially in the Gulf, countries that are trying to diversify their economies beyond this single source, oil-dominant economy, to a more sustainable one.鈥� 17:00

Jacopo Scita

鈥淚f we had to identify one feature that defines China-Iran partnership, it is that it is an instinctively unbalanced relationship. Of course, there鈥檚 a structural reason, which is that China is a great power [and] Iran is a middle power, but at the same time, there鈥檚 a second reason which is more exogenous鈥� that works as a catalyst of this imbalance, and that is Iran鈥檚 international isolation.鈥� 26:00

I would say that COVID-19 exposed and fostered a series of  patterns and evidence that were already in place, and for this reason I鈥檇 say that the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China-Iran relations is that of an accelerator or a catalyst.鈥� 30:00