China’s Rise in the Middle East: Fuelling a Tired Dragon?

ABSTRACT

China’s hunger for natural resources is growing as the Chinese authorities try to fuel an economy in need of sustainable economic growth while it adjusts to its “new normal” growth trajectory. There is a need to reactivate an economic model that is not meeting growth level targets and remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The country’s energy model needs to change amidst the challenges and significant costs posed by environmental degradation. Over the last decade, the Middle East’s connections have become of paramount importance to China, but these links are quite fragile as they are fundamentally affected by significant uncertainty. The Chinese authorities face paramount challenges as they engage with a very conflicting region characterised by increasing political frictions, armed conflicts, and escalating instability. These difficulties suggest the need for a highly cautious strategy as the Chinese authorities keep progressing with the redefinition of their energy model centered on stability and security as having a paramount importance to a country that needs to fuel its economic model. However, coal dependency, environmental concerns and lower economic growth levels have pushed the country to reconsider its energy model towards more sustainable approaches. As the government seeks energy sustainability, the research findings suggest that the country’s new energy model is shifting towards oil;this raises concerns regarding China’s national security interests and sustainable economic growth goals. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.