Development solution to Mideast tangles
- By Zhao Minghao
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E-mail Global Times, February 1, 2016
China is "in favor of putting in place a new mechanism to promote peace as to the Middle East question" and will grant 50 million yuan ($7.53 million) to the Palestinian side. The Palestinian question is concerned with justice, which is key to reconciliation. China will provide 230 million yuan of humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen as well.
China believes that development is key to addressing the Middle East problem, and it entirely depends on whether countries in the region are willing to explore a way of development on their own.
In the past decade, interventions by the "trans-Atlantic alliance" into Afghanistan and Iraq have been futile, and many US and European elites have realized that forcing a regime change in the region is a filthy business, and that so-called nation-building is futile.
The Middle East needs investment as it wants to produce cement, fridges and automobiles, and hundreds of millions of young people in the region need jobs. It is hard for jobless youngsters to reject an offer that can provide a stable income of hundreds of US dollars every month, even if the offer is given by terrorist groups.
China hopes it can do everything possible to advance the industrialization of the Middle East. Besides joint industrial parks, China will set up a $15 billion special loan for industrialization in the Middle East. It will provide countries in the region with $10 billion of commercial loans and $10 billion of concessional loans. Meanwhile, China will also launch a $20 billion joint investment fund with the UAE and Qatar.
The "One Belt, One Road" initiative calls for wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, so China has no plan to dominate others. At a crossroads of the Silk Road economic belt and the 21st century maritime Silk Road, the Middle East holds an important position during the implementation of the initiative.
The "One Belt, One Road" aims to benefit countries and regions that have been marginalized in the world economy due to geographic and political reasons for a long time.
Facing rising doubts about China's motives, Xi clarified that China won't find proxies, establish spheres of influence, or fill in the geopolitical vacuum in the Middle East.
The author is a research fellow at the Charhar Institute and an adjunct fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
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