The New Silk Road: China’s Energy Strategy in the Greater Middle East – The Four Seas Strategy   

While the West views Syria, Iran, and similar countries as strategic liabilities and pariah states, China views them as strategic assets. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Beijing has feared that Washington’s Greater Middle East strategy entails encircling China and creating a norm of toppling undemocratic regimes, which implicitly challenges the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy at home. In response, Beijing has increased economic and diplomatic ties with countries in the region that have problematic relations with the United States and the West—such as Syria, Turkey, and Iran—in addition to expanding its overall footprint in the region. (The Cutting Age)

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