Editor's note: Fan Hongda, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, China. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

With Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 and the outbreak of another Palestine-Israel conflict, the Middle East has once again fallen into a dangerous situation. The argument about competition between China and the United States in the Middle East has also been raised again.

In fact, whenever major events have occurred in the Middle East in recent years, attention has been paid to the great power competition in the region, especially China's challenge to the United States. So, even at a time when Israel is still immersed in the grief of the October 7 attack and Gaza is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, some international media are still discussing this topic.

Frankly speaking, I don't think China has the intention to challenge the United States' position in the Middle East. Fundamentally, China's Middle East diplomacy is different from that of the United States.

At the Security and Development Summit held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 16, 2022, facing the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, U.S. President Joe Biden made it clear that the United States would not leave the Middle East, leaving a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran. Also at this meeting, the President of the United States announced the five principles of Washington's diplomacy towards the Middle East, namely partnership, deterrence, diplomacy, integration, and values.

From President Biden's above statement, it is not difficult to see that Washington's policy towards the Middle East has not undergone fundamental changes. The basic feature of U.S. diplomacy towards the Middle East is still to unite with partners to suppress opponents, and it is still an attempt to seek security and stability in the Middle East through military deterrence.

As far as China's Middle East diplomacy is concerned, Beijing has long emphasized cooperation and development. "Persuading peace and promoting talks" is another distinctive feature of China's Middle East policy. The "Global Security Initiative Concept Paper" released by China in February 2023 makes a clear statement on how to promote the realization of security and peace in the Middle East.

Under the concept of win-win cooperation, China has continuously deepened cooperation with various countries in the Middle East, and in the process, it has clearly supported the strategic autonomy of the region and respected the sovereignty, dignity and civilization of the countries in the Middle East.

In recent years, Middle Eastern countries have increasingly hoped that China should pay attention to regional security issues in addition to economic cooperation. China has been working hard for this and has been constantly conveying to other parties its willingness to help the Middle East achieve regional security. Therefore, China's successful mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran was not entirely sudden.

So, if some Middle East countries choose to distance themselves from the United States, the key reason is not China's intentional challenge to the United States but Washington's unsuccessful policies. For example, on October 18, with 12 countries including China voting in favor, the United States alone vetoed a Security Council draft resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause" in the Palestine-Israel conflict. How could the U.S. move be welcomed by Middle Eastern countries that are seeking peace and development?

And, at a time when competition among world powers does exist in many places and fields, Middle Eastern countries hope to use this competition for their own benefit. For example, some countries there insist on economic cooperation with China, but are more inclined to cooperate with the United States in terms of security.

Even so, Washington still believes that economic security is also national security, so it keeps putting pressure on some Middle Eastern countries to reduce or even stop cooperation with China. It now appears that mere pressure cannot change the minds of Middle Eastern countries that are in urgent need of national development. If the United States cannot provide sufficient investment and other alternatives to China's role, Middle Eastern countries will not easily succumb to Washington's pressure and abandon their growing cooperation with China.

What Middle Eastern countries desire most now is peace and development, and they are working hard to achieve inter-country reconciliation and vigorously building an external environment conducive to national development. The Middle East reconciliation has highlighted that although the contradictions will not disappear soon, and it is not even ruled out that the Middle East peace will regress under certain circumstances, the awareness of regional coexistence of Middle East countries has become more and more strong.

At a time when Middle Eastern countries are increasingly pursuing strategic autonomy and diplomatic diversification, world powers that can better respond to the development concerns of those countries will be more popular there. Therefore, the popularity of a world power in the Middle East is mainly based on its direct interaction with Middle Eastern countries rather than competition with other world powers.

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