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Xi Will Visit Saudi Arabia, a Sign of China’s Growing Middle East Ties

Xi Jinping’s trip, which will include three regional summits, aims to deepen a relationship with Gulf States that has grown far beyond oil.

By Vivian Nereim and David Pierson

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday 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,” said Gedaliah Afterman, head of the Asia Policy Program at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and International Relations at Reichman University in Israel.

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 human rights abuses. Both bristle at the idea of outsiders interfering in their domestic affairs.

During the three-day visit, the Chinese leader will take part in Saudi-China, Gulf-China and Arab-China summits, the Saudi state news agency reported on Tuesday. More than 30 heads of states and leaders of international organizations plan to attend, the report said, adding that Saudi Arabia and China would sign a “strategic partnership.”

The trip sends a message that Beijing’s clout in the region is growing at a time when U.S. officials say that they want to make the Middle East less of a priority, focusing diplomatic and military resources on Asia and Europe.

The visit will inevitably draw comparisons to Donald J. Trump’s arrival in the Saudi capital , Riyadh, for his first trip abroad as president in 2017. Courted by Saudi officials, he was greeted by streets decorated with American flags and an enormous image of his face projected on the side of a building.

Saudi Arabia has been a close American ally for more than half a century, and the United States remains the oil-rich kingdom’s main security guarantor, selling it the bulk of its weaponry. But the Saudi rulers have long sought to strengthen other alliances to prepare for what they see as an emerging multipolar world, with China as a key superpower.

U.S.-Saudi ties, meanwhile, have been especially fractious over the past few years, hitting one low after another. On the campaign trail, President Biden called Saudi Arabia a “pariah.”

After assuming office, his administration declared a “recalibration” of the relationship and pressed the kingdom over the 2018 murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — a Saudi citizen and U.S. resident at the time — by Saudi agents in Istanbul .

That approach has caused irritation in the power corridors of the kingdom, where 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is both the prime minister and de facto ruler, sees himself as an ascendant global leader and views his country as a regional powerhouse that is too important to slight.

Most recently, American and Saudi officials traded barbs over an October decision to cut oil production by OPEC Plus — an energy producers’ cartel in which Saudi Arabia plays a key role — with each side accusing the other of exploiting the move for political motivations.

“Xi clearly wants to make a statement at a moment at which the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is strained,” said James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“It’s a good moment to replant the flag, if you wish. And I think it’s a good moment for the Gulf States to say, ‘Hey, we have other options. Washington, you’re not the only ones out there.’”

In July, Mr. Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia for his own state visit, partly to repair the relationship. The trip was an understated affair , which U.S. officials say was at Mr. Biden’s request; he greeted Prince Mohammed with a fist bump.

During a summit with Arab leaders in the coastal city of Jeddah, he sought to reassure American allies that the United States was not abandoning the region.

“We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” Mr. Biden said.

Just days after Mr. Biden departed, China’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia wrote a thinly veiled opinion article in a leading Saudi newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, implying that Western powers had treated Saudi Arabia with “arrogance” and contrasting that with what he characterized as China’s respect for its Arab partners.

For Mr. Xi, the summits provide a respite from turmoil at home, where growing anger over China’s stringent Covid restrictions prompted nationwide protests considered the most serious challenge to the government in decades.

Saudi Arabia has not denounced the abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang despite condemnation by dozens of European countries and some Asian nations, including Turkey, an important Muslim state.

In turn, Chinese officials did not criticize the Saudi government for the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, accepting the official explanation that he was the victim of a rogue operation. And unlike with the U.S., there are few strings attached to business between China and Saudi Arabia.

“As a trading partner, China doesn’t have any requirements for Saudi Arabia in terms of sovereignty, values and ideology,” said Ma Xiaolin, an international relations scholar at Zhejiang International Studies University in Hangzhou. “Saudi Arabia trusts China.”

Those ties are increasingly visible on the streets of Riyadh, as Saudis start to buy Chinese cars and Chinese companies expand their presence. China also relies on the region for energy, and has expanded its maritime footprint in the Middle East, a conduit in its Belt and Road Initiative needed to reach trade partners in Europe.

Despite their economic ties to the Middle East, Chinese officials appear uninterested in taking on the type of strategic defense role that the United States has played in the region. Then there is the sticky matter of China’s trade and energy ties to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.

It would be “fanciful” to think that Saudi Arabia could replace the United States with China today, said Mohammed Alyahya, a Saudi fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Still, regional officials are inevitably going to react to China’s growing prominence and their perception of American decline, he said.

“When they see America’s strategic power waning, for political reasons or for reasons of the world views of certain U.S. politicians, that is a frustrating thing for Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Alyahya said.

“But I think those policymakers would also be foolish not to take U.S. threats of pivoting away from the region and recalibrating relations with the region at face value — and start thinking soberly about what a post-United States Middle East, or world order, looks like.”

How Saudi Arabia and its neighbors imagine that world order, and China’s place in it, will become clearer over the next few days. Officials in Washington will watch closely to see whether any of the agreements signed during the trip touch on more sensitive sectors, such as defense or nuclear power.

“Across some threshold, it becomes more difficult to work with us if they’re too deeply engaged in terms of military infrastructure and military equipment with China,” Colin Kahl, U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, told journalists during a briefing in Bahrain last month. “The more connected their military and intelligence systems get with Beijing, the more of a direct challenge that is to our forces here in the region.”

Still, he added, “because the geopolitical landscape is changing, I understand the mentality of hedging — or making sure you can cover all your bets.”

To say Gulf countries are hedging is an “incomplete picture,” said Jonathan Fulton, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. The U.S. remains paramount to them, but China is essential, too.

“They do a lot of important stuff with both sides,” he said. “They want to continue doing that as long as they can.” 

Vivian Nereim reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and David Pierson from Singapore. Edward Wong in Washington and Olivia Wang contributed reporting.

Vivian Nereim is the Gulf bureau chief. She has more than a decade of experience in the Arabian Peninsula and was previously a reporter for Bloomberg News covering Saudi Arabia. More about Vivian Nereim

China deepens ties with Saudi Arabia with visit by Xi Jinping

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and China showcased deepening ties with a series of strategic deals on Thursday during a visit by President Xi Jinping , including one with tech giant Huawei , whose growing foray into the Gulf region has raised U.S. security concerns.

King Salman signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” with Xi, who received a lavish welcome in a country forging new global partnerships beyond the West.

Xi’s car was escorted to the king’s palace by members of the Saudi Royal Guard riding Arabian horses and carrying Chinese and Saudi flags, and he later attended a welcome banquet.

The Chinese leader held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , de facto ruler of the oil giant, who greeted him with a warm smile. Xi heralded “a new era” in Arab ties.

The display stood in stark contrast to the low-key welcome extended in July to President Joe Biden , with whom ties have been strained by Saudi energy policy and the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi that had overshadowed the awkward visit.

The United States, warily watching China’s growing sway and with its ties to Riyadh at a nadir, said on Wednesday that Xi’s trip was an example of Chinese attempts to exert influence around the world and would not change U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

A memorandum with China’s Huawei Technologies, on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities, was agreed despite U.S. unease with Gulf allies over a possible security risk in using the Chinese firm’s technology. Huawei has participated in building 5G networks in most Gulf states despite the U.S. concerns.

Prince Mohammed, with whom Biden bumped fists instead of shaking hands in July, has made a comeback on the world stage following the Khashoggi killing and has been defiant in the face of U.S. ire over oil supplies and pressure from Washington to help isolate Russia .

In further burnishing of his international credentials, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that the prince and the UAE president jointly led mediation efforts that secured the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap with Russia.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said there was no mediation involved. “The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia,” she said at a news briefing.

In an op-ed published in Saudi media, Xi said he was on a “pioneering trip” to “open a new era of China’s relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia.”

China and Arab countries will “continue to hold high the banner of noninterference in internal affairs,” Xi added.

That sentiment was echoed by the crown prince, who said his country opposed any “interference in China’s internal affairs in the name of human rights,” Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

Xi, who is due to meet other Gulf oil producers and attend a wider gathering of Arab leaders on Friday, said China would work to make those summits “milestone events in the history of China-Arab relations,” and that Beijing sees Riyadh as “an important force in the multipolar world.”

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates have said that they will not choose sides between global powers and are diversifying partners to serve national economic and security interests.

China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, is a major trade partner of Gulf states and bilateral ties have expanded as the region pushes economic diversification, raising U.S. hackles about Chinese involvement in sensitive Gulf infrastructure.

The Saudi energy minister said Wednesday that Riyadh would remain a “trusted and reliable” energy partner for Beijing and that the two would strengthen cooperation in energy supply chains by setting up a regional center in the kingdom for Chinese factories.

Chinese and Saudi firms also signed 34 deals for investment in green energy, information technology, cloud services, transport, construction and other sectors, state news agency SPA reported. It gave no figures, but had earlier said the two countries would seal initial agreements worth $30 billion.

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Saudi Arabia extends lavish welcome as China’s Xi heralds ‘new era’ in relations

RIYADH - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received President Xi Jinping on Thursday as the Chinese leader heralded “a new era” in Arab relations, with a lavish welcome signalling Riyadh’s interest in deepening ties with Beijing despite US wariness.

Members of the Saudi Royal Guard riding Arabian horses and carrying Chinese and Saudi flags escorted Mr Xi’s car as it entered the royal palace in Riyadh, where Prince Mohammed, de facto ruler of the oil giant, greeted him with a warm smile.

It stood in stark contrast to the low-key welcome extended in July to US President Joe Biden, with whom ties have been strained by Saudi energy policy and the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that had overshadowed the awkward visit.

The United States, warily watching China’s growing sway and with its ties to Riyadh at a nadir, said on Wednesday that the visit was an example of Chinese attempts to exert influence around the world and would not change US policy towards the Middle East.

Prince Mohammed, with whom Mr Biden bumped fists instead of shook hands in July, has made a comeback on the world stage following the Khashoggi killing, which cast a pall over Saudi-US ties, and has been defiant in the face of US ire over oil supplies and pressure from Washington to help isolate Russia.

Setting the tone for Mr Xi’s visit, his plane was escorted by Saudi air force jets as it entered Saudi airspace and a 21-gun salute was fired as senior Saudi royals met him at the airport on Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

In an op-ed published in Saudi media, Mr Xi said he was on a “pioneering trip” to “open a new era of China’s relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia”.

China and Arab countries would “continue to hold high the banner of non-interference in internal affairs, firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity”, he wrote.

Mr Xi, due to meet other Gulf oil producers and attend a wider gathering of Arab leaders on Friday, said these states were a “treasure trove of energy for the world economy... and are fertile ground for the development of high-tech industries”.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates have said they would not choose sides between global powers and were diversifying partners to serve national economic and security interests.

“Trusted partner”

China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, is a major trade partner of Gulf states and bilateral ties have expanded as the region pushes economic diversification, raising US hackles about Chinese involvement in sensitive Gulf infrastructure.

The Saudi energy minister on Wednesday said Riyadh would remain a “trusted and reliable” energy partner for Beijing and that the two would boost cooperation in energy supply chains by establishing a regional centre in the kingdom for Chinese factories.

Chinese and Saudi firms also signed 34 deals for investment in green energy, information technology, cloud services, transport, construction and other sectors, state news agency SPA reported.

It gave no figures, but had earlier said that the two countries would seal initial agreements worth US$30 billion (S$40.7 billion).

Dr Tang Tianbo, Middle East specialist at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations – a Chinese government-affiliated think-tank – said the visit would result in further expansion of energy cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative – Mr Xi’s signature infrastructure investment project – dovetailed with Saudi plans to diversify its economy under its Vision 2030, Dr Tang wrote in an article on Saudi-Chinese relations.

While Saudi Arabia was an important US ally, she noted, “in recent years, it has upheld its strategic autonomy, resisted the pressure of the United States”.

China’s Foreign Ministry this week described Mr Xi’s trip as the “largest-scale diplomatic activity between China and the Arab world” since the People’s Republic of China was founded.

Mr Xi is making just his third journey overseas since the Covid-19 pandemic prompted China to shut its borders and embark on a series of lockdowns, putting the brakes on its giant economy.

REUTERS, AFP

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China's Xi meets Saudi crown prince on high-stakes visit

Riyadh (AFP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping met Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince on Thursday on an Arab outreach visit that will yield billions of dollars in deals and has earned a rebuke from Washington.

Issued on: 08/12/2022 - 11:34 Modified: 08/12/2022 - 11:31

About $30 billion in agreements will be signed on Thursday, Saudi state media said, as China seeks to shore up its Covid-hit economy and as the Saudis, long-term US allies, push to diversify their economic and political alliances.

Xi, who flew in on Wednesday, was greeted with a handshake by 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of the world's biggest oil exporter, at Yamamah Palace.

Arab leaders also began to converge on the Saudi capital ahead of a summit with Xi, the leader of the world's number-two economy, who will hold separate talks with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council before leaving on Friday.

China, the top consumer of Saudi oil, has been strengthening its ties with a region that has long relied on the United States for military protection but which has voiced concerns the American presence could be downgraded.

After Xi's arrival on Wednesday, with formation jets flying overhead, Saudi state media announced 34 investment agreements in sectors including green hydrogen, information technology, transport and construction.

The official Saudi Press Agency did not provide details but said two-way trade totalled 304 billion Saudi riyals ($80 billion) in 2021 and 103 billion Saudi riyals ($27 billion) in the third quarter of 2022.

State broadcaster Al Ekhbariya said another 20 agreements worth 110 billion riyals ($29.3 billion) were due to be signed on Thursday.

Riyadh-based diplomats said Thursday was expected to be devoted to meetings including with King Salman, the 86-year-old monarch, and his son, Prince Mohammed.

'Raising pace' of cooperation

The crown prince sees China as a critical partner in his sweeping Vision 2030 agenda, seeking the involvement of Chinese firms in ambitious mega-projects meant to diversify the economy away from fossil fuels.

Key Saudi projects include the futuristic $500 billion megacity NEOM, a so-called cognitive city that will depend heavily on facial recognition and surveillance technology.

Saudi investment minister Khalid al-Falih said this week's visit "will contribute to raising the pace of economic and investment cooperation between the two countries", offering Chinese companies and investors "rewarding returns", according to SPA.

Xi may also hold bilateral talks before the summit meetings with other Arab leaders who have arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of Friday's summits, Riyadh-based diplomats said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Tunisian President Kais Saied, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan were all flying in on Thursday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati have also confirmed their attendance.

China's foreign ministry this week described Xi's trip as the "largest-scale diplomatic activity between China and the Arab world" since the People's Republic of China was founded.

It has not escaped the attention of the White House, which warned of "the influence that China is trying to grow around the world", calling its objectives "not conducive to preserving the international rules based order".

Washington has long been a close partner of Riyadh, but the relationship is currently roiled by disagreements on energy policy, US security guarantees and human rights.

Xi is making just his third journey overseas since the Covid pandemic prompted China to shut its borders and embark on a series of lockdowns, putting the brakes on its giant economy.

His visit follows US President Joe Biden's trip in July, when he greeted Prince Mohammed with a fist-bump at the start of a vain attempt to convince the Saudis to raise oil production.

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What to expect from xi jinping's visit to saudi arabia.

As per media reports, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Riyadh in the coming days, and preparations to receive him are underway in the Gulf Kingdom.

The excitement surrounding the visit is high, and it is reported that Xi will be feted at the planned megacity of NEOM on the Red Sea coast as well as the capital Riyadh.

Given Beijing’s interest in the oil-rich Arab state, as well as the potential of the visit to elevate Riyadh’s regional standing, it is possible that an important announcement or development will emerge from the meeting between the two heads of state.

“Xi was visiting the Kingdom in March 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic. If his first foreign trip after the travel break takes him to Saudi Arabia, it sends a symbolic message about the utmost relevance of the bilateral partnership,” Dr Sebastian Sons, a researcher at the Centre for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO) in Bonn, told The New Arab , indicating that the visit has been on the cards for quite a while.

"The Kingdom's reception of the Chinese leader will be keenly observed by Western media to assess whether Riyadh is closer to Washington or Beijing, and whether relations with the US are likely to change"

Riyadh and Beijing clinched a “strategic partnership” in 2016 to promote bilateral relations. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin recently said, “China and Saudi Arabia are comprehensive strategic partners… We are ready to work with Saudi Arabia to keep cementing mutual trust and deepening cooperation”.

Based on this understanding of Sino-Saudi ties , a number of developments can be expected during Xi Jinping’s visit.

To start with, having hosted President Joe Biden just one month ago, the Kingdom’s reception of the Chinese leader will be keenly observed by Western media to assess whether Riyadh is closer to Washington or Beijing, and whether relations with the US are likely to change.

According to reports, the gala reception being planned for Xi promises to be as lavish as that during Trump’s visit in 2017 . In comparison, Biden’s welcome was rather low-key, as bilateral relations between the US and Saudi Arabia became strained after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Why Arab states are standing by China over the US on Taiwan

“After the Biden visit, the potential trip of Xi to Saudi Arabia symbolises the Kingdom’s approach to promote strategic autonomy by not acting as a puppet or proxy of the US anymore,” said Dr Sons, explaining that Chinese attention would provide Saudi Arabia more leverage in its dealings with Washington, and demonstrate that it is not isolated.

“However, the US remains important. Therefore, Saudi Arabia uses its relations with China as a bargaining chip to pressure Biden to cooperate closer with the Kingdom,” he added.

Secondly, considering the upheaval in global energy markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s key focus during the visit should be on oil. In 2021, total trade between China and Saudi Arabia was worth $87 billion with Riyadh as the top exporter of oil to China with a 17% share in its total imports.

Since China has high stakes in this field, it is possible that an even bigger oil deal could materialise during Xi’s visit. This would be particularly significant given Biden’s failure to secure a deal to reduce oil prices in the US.

Just weeks ago, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco finalised a deal with China’s state-owned Sinopec for collaboration in areas such as “carbon capture and hydrogen processes” and there have been discussions about launching a manufacturing hub in eastern Saudi Arabia.

In addition, the two countries have even discussed using the yuan instead of dollars for bilateral trade. If this goes ahead, Saudi Arabia would become the first major oil exporter to replace the dollar with the yuan, though, beyond the symbolic, it is unlikely to make much difference in the dollar-dominated global oil market.

“The Gulf countries have their currencies pegged to the dollar, and it is illogical for any country that links its currency to the dollar to try and destabilise its position,” said Mohammed al-Azmi, a Kuwaiti professor of economics.

However, China has also been acquiring oil at cheaper rates from sanction-ridden Russia and Moscow has recently overtaken Riyadh as Beijing’s biggest oil supplier for the third month in a row.

 "In the past, economic relations mostly focused on energy and infrastructure but more recently, activities in cyber-security, defence, artificial intelligence and communications technology have intensified"

Thirdly, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has linked up very well with Crown Prince MBS’s economic diversification policy, Saudi Vision 2030.

“Both states largely rely on prioritising economic engagement by creating synergy effects between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. In the past, economic relations mostly focused on energy and infrastructure but more recently, activities in cyber-security, defence, artificial intelligence and communications technology have intensified,” observed Dr Sons.

Moving away from oil dependence, infrastructure projects under the BRI in Saudi Arabia were worth $40 billion between 2014 and 2019. Alongside these, there are further possibilities in technology and services under China’s Digital Corridor and the Beidou satellite system.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s economy is now the biggest in the Arab world and according to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, it is likely to expand by 7.6% by the end of this year.

Is Riyadh developing ballistic missiles with China's help?

“Saudi Arabia is taking impressive steps to improve the business environment, attract foreign investment and create private-sector employment,” said Amine Mati and Sidra Rehman, economists at the IMF, noting that the Saudi economy grew at its fastest pace in a decade. 

In 2021, Saudi Arabia also became a “ dialogue partner ” in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security and development group leaning towards Beijing and Moscow, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India.

“As China has emerged as the top trade partner of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom aims to consolidate strong business and political relations, which also indicates Riyadh’s efforts to diversify economic and political partnerships,” commented Dr Sons of Saudi interest in the alliance. 

The fourth potential development concerns defence ties , which both countries have been investing in, though Washington remains Riyadh’s primary security factor.

Beijing has been helping Riyadh with missile technology and setting up nuclear power plants . According to a report by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, arms transfers from China to Saudi Arabia increased 386% between 2016 and 2020.

“In general, Saudi-Sino relations are driven by business-oriented pragmatism. Saudi Arabia considers China a trustworthy and reliable partner in terms of economic engagement and investment and is also interested in intensifying security cooperation. For instance, China is providing equipment and know-how to develop a localised Saudi defence industry,” explained Dr Sons.

But China is yet to replace the US where the Kingdom’s specific defence needs are concerned. For example, the Biden administration announced a $3 billion arms package this month for Riyadh, which includes a potential sale of Patriot missile batteries.

Ostensibly, since Beijing has not shown much interest in taking on a security role in the Middle East, there is no real power competition with Washington yet.

"In contrast to the US, China is much more welcomed in Saudi Arabia as Xi doesn't express any critical statements regarding human rights violations"

Finally, convergences between Beijing and Riyadh also extend into the realm of governance and human rights. Describing Saudi Arabia’s relationship with China, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said , “We (Arabs) have history thousands of years of relationship with China, but we never faced challenges or interference from China.”

“In contrast to the US, China is much more welcomed in Saudi Arabia as Xi doesn’t express any critical statements regarding human rights violations. In turn, the Saudi leadership stays silent on Chinese human rights abuses against the Uyghurs . It has also expressed its support for the ‘one China’ policy regarding Taiwan, which widens the rift with the US,” said Dr Sons.

The exact developments that will emerge from Xi Jinping’s visit to the Kingdom remain to be seen, but the likelihood of cooperation on energy, economy, and defence issues and the increasing alignment between Riyadh and Beijing could shift regional and international dynamics.

Sabena Siddiqui is a foreign affairs journalist, lawyer, and geopolitical analyst specialising in modern China, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Middle East and South Asia.  Follow her on Twitter:  @sabena_siddiqi

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Vietnam president lands in China on 3-day visit, to meet Xi Jinping amid South China Sea concerns

The Vietnamese president, who was elevated this month to the nation’s top position, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, arrived in Guangzhou, state broadcaster CCTV reported read more

Vietnam’s top leader To Lam arrived in China on Sunday for a three-day visit, according to Chinese state media, which Beijing’s foreign ministry has said will include meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

The Vietnamese president, who was elevated this month to the nation’s top position, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, arrived in Guangzhou, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Lam will visit some Chinese locations where former President Ho Chi Minh conducted revolutionary activities while in Guangzhou, CCTV added.

China and Vietnam forged diplomatic ties in 1950. In 2008, both countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation that was jointly fortified in 2013 to address more shared international and regional issues of concern.

The meeting would confirm the close ties between the two communist-run neighbours, which have well-developed economic and trade relations despite occasionally clashing over boundaries in the energy-rich South China Sea.

China painted Lam’s visit as taking Xi’s trip to Vietnam in December a step further, citing “a good start” to the building of a “China-Vietnam community of shared future that carries strategic significance” when the Chinese foreign ministry announced the trip.

The state visit marks Lam’s first after taking office, which China said “fully reflects the great importance he attaches to the development of ties between both parties and countries”.

Both countries signed more than a dozen agreements last December that included strengthening railway cooperation and development, and establishing communication to handle unexpected incidents in the South China Sea. The details of the agreements were not made public.