China is succeeding in the Middle East because it learned from watching the US fail there for 20 years

Last week, Saudi Arabia and Iran formally quashed a seven-year freeze in relations and the world has Beijing to thank for brokering the breakthrough. However, not everyone is so readily appreciative.

Following Chinese diplomatic advances in the Middle East, many in the West fear that growing Chinese influence in the region constitutes a threat to US interests in the long-term and is a sign of American decline. However, this assumption is flawed.

China’s success is not an indication of its aspirations to unseat the United States in the region but instead a direct byproduct of observing the past 20 years of US Middle East policy and correcting its approach accordingly. Thus, China’s achievement in the Middle East should not be defined by the brokering of this deal, but by its avoidance of America’s missteps over the past 30 years.

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