Xi Jinping’s Recent Trip To Saudi Arabia Should Be Sending Alarm Bells...

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday this week for a flurry of meetings bringing together heads of state from across the Middle East, a region where longtime American allies are growing increasingly close to China. Mr Xi’s visit is aimed at deepening China’s decades-old ties with the Gulf region, which started narrowly as a bid to secure oil, and have since developed into a complex relationship involving arms sales, technology transfers and infrastructure projects. When countries in the Gulf think of their future, they see China as their partner. The economic interests shared by the two countries are clear: China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, while Saudi Arabia is one of China’s largest suppliers of oil. Chinese companies are deeply enmeshed in the kingdom, building megaprojects, setting up 5G infrastructure and developing military drones. The two governments have also found common cause as authoritarian states willing to overlook each other’s huma