This devoted China booster writes that the Chinese Communist Party is distressed by the current conflict pitting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain against Qatar and Turkey. The former faction is opposed to the latter's increasingly warming relations with Iran and Russia. And, Trump in his profound ignorance probably ignited this fire.
China’s cardinal foreign policy imperative is to refrain from interfering abroad while advancing the proverbial good relations with key political actors – even when they may be at each other’s throats.Since the late 1970s under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party launched what they regard as a "win-win" strategy using economic development to solve conflicts both within China and abroad. (See my commentary here starting with "For background material on contemporary China ...".)
Still, it’s nothing but gut-wrenching for Beijing to watch the current, unpredictable, Saudi-Qatari standoff. There’s no endgame in sight, as plausible scenarios include even regime change and a seismic geopolitical shift in Southwest Asia – what a Western-centric view calls the Middle East.
