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China’s Balancing Strategy Between Saudi Arabia and Iran: The View from Riyadh

Houghton, Benjamin

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Authors

Ben Houghton benjamin.houghton@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy



Abstract

Since Deng Xiaoping's opening-up policy and drive for economic modernisation and reform in the late 1970s, and especially since China's foreign energy requirements skyrocketed in 1993, Beijing's interests in the Persian Gulf have grown immensely. A staple of its regional policy has been an insistence on cultivating relations with all states, something that has necessitated a careful balancing act between regional rivals, especially Saudi Arabia and Iran. This article examines China's strategy to balance relations with these two states, especially during periods of tension, such as following the 2019 drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, something that Riyadh accused Iran of masterminding. Following an examination of this strategy, the article explores Saudi attempts to coax Beijing away from Tehran and Saudi perceptions of Sino-Iranian relations through the lens of the 2021 25-year agreement between China and Iran, questioning whether Sino-Iranian relations are a bone of contention in Sino-Saudi relations.

Citation

Houghton, B. (2022). China’s Balancing Strategy Between Saudi Arabia and Iran: The View from Riyadh. Asian Affairs, 53(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2022.2029065

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Feb 9, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date May 17, 2022
Publicly Available Date May 17, 2022
Journal Asian Affairs
Print ISSN 0306-8374
Electronic ISSN 1477-1500
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 53
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2022.2029065

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited,
and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.




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