At the end of the day, China is simply not interested, or attempts to bring over the major Arab nations have failed. I guess they hope that the US gets stuck in a quagmire in the region and over invests resources while China continues to build its own power. In other words, they've conceded, to some degree, the region to US influence.

Does China even have that much presence in West Asia? What's China's connection to West Asia outside of "they trained the PFLP once upon a time" or "they are chummy-ish with the KSA and the UAE?" China mostly focuses on building influence in SEA and Africa. It's how you get the situation where Taiwanese fake embassies barely exist in Africa while there are still a few holdout countries in Latin America that recognizes the ROC over the PRC.

I suspect China also sees West Asia as within Russian and Iranian sphere of influence. It makes more sense for China to help Russia/Iran expand their sphere of influence within West Asia rather than directly influence West Asia themselves.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Does China even have that much presence in West Asia?

They want to build belt and road straight through Iran to Bulgaria. My assumption is that if Israel did not exist then they would also build it straight through to Egypt and North Africa. Israel is the major geographically limiting factor preventing railroad access to Africa.

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A rail line from China to Africa would have to go through so many countries that maintaining it would be a diplomatic nightmare.

Also the Gulf of Aden is only 26 km wide and 300m deep at the western end, so a tunnel there isn't out of the question.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I don't see why you think that. China doesn't operate the lines directly, they simply build them. Companies then use them. The country operates them, or private companies within the country where they're constructed.

How do you think the already existing rail lines connecting all the way from France to China currently work?

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

The current (northern) line to Europe is China - Mongolia - Russia - Belarus - Poland. A line to Africa would need to go through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Jordan and Egypt, and that's excluding Israel. (A line through the Gulf of Aden would be ... Saudi Arabia - Yemen - Djbouti.) You just need one country having a colour revolution to shut the whole thing down.

[–] stink@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 3 days ago

Does China even have that much presence in West Asia?

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-874132

They'll bend over backwards to provide infrastructure to "israel" even after "israel" blocks their companies from doing business with them for "security purposes"

On government tenders, a process is underway in which investments by Chinese companies are examined by the Foreign Investment Review Committee, which has blocked several investments by Chinese companies in Israel in recent years. However, they have found a back door to enter investments in critical facilities by signing agreements with private companies, such as Dalia.

China Harbor, part of the consortium that won the construction of the two Dalia power plants was previously disqualified from the tender to build a refinery port in Haifa. After Israel Ports Co. took this step "for national security reasons," the Chinese appealed to the courts. Last year, a judge in the Tel Aviv District Court explained that he intended to rule against China Harbor and dismiss the petition that was presented to him. The Chinese company subsequently withdrew the petition to avoid a ruling.

Critical support means calling out China for being pieces of shit here, IMO.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

China certainly tried quite a lot with the Saudis, the major Sunni power in the region. They still have influence, but not enough to prevent the Saudis from siding with the United States in the end.