Murphy Chairs Hearing on China's Role in the Middle East

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, on Thursday held a subcommittee hearing on China’s role in the Middle East.

“There’s no question that China’s growing presence in the Middle East presents a challenge to the United States that we have to confront. With such a large U.S. military footprint in the region, we must assure that China does not get its hands on our most sensitive technology. Frankly, that’s why I’ve opposed selling F-35s and our Reaper drones to the UAE. And while Middle East oil doesn’t matter to us as much as it used to, it still matters. And so we don’t want China to get a monopoly on the Middle East energy trade. China is also an attractive partner to dictators in the region who are looking for more tools of repression and surveillance that the Chinese have perfected. As the world’s leading human rights and democracy defender, the U.S. should push back on the spread of these tools of repression,” Murphy said.

On China’s limitations in the region, Murphy said: “[W]e should recognize that while China’s influence in the region is increasing, it has its limits, and that the United States’ commitment to the region — despite much hyped fears of abandonment — continues, as we remain the leading security partner for every country in the region (except, of course, for Iran). We shouldn’t be so insecure as to believe that our partners in the Middle East think China can be taken seriously as an alternative to the United States. For example, while the U.S. preserves the security of shipping lanes in the Gulf as a global public good, it’s hard to imagine China acting to preserve anything but its own shipments. And let’s face it — if a war erupted between the Arab Gulf countries and Iran, the Chinese navy is not sailing to anyone’s defense.

Murphy highlighted the opportunity to reset U.S.-Gulf relations: “Recognizing these limitations to China’s influence gives us real leverage with the region, and we need to use it to reset our relationships. For decades, our approach to the Middle East has been overly militarized at the expense of economic diversification and inclusive political reform. Which leads me to my last and most important point: We should not deprioritize political and economic reform priorities in the Middle East for the sake of competing with China. Poor, corrupt, and unequal societies make for a combustible mix that can quickly cause superficially stable regimes to collapse quickly. In the long run, the most stable countries are democracies, and we should not lose sight of that goal.”

A full transcript of Murphy’s opening remarks can be found below:

MUPRHY: “We convene the subcommittee today to discuss China’s role in the Middle East. Thank you to our witness for being here today as well as my colleagues.

“As much as it’s possible in an open setting, my goal in this hearing is to have a frank conversation so that we can appropriately factor China’s Middle East goals as we right size American goals.

“The United States has been the dominant power in the Middle East for decades. America’s deal with regional despots — particularly in the Gulf — has long been a straightforward one: providing security in exchange for the steady provision of oil to the global economy. But for the past 20 years, several of the dynamics that underpinned this arrangement have changed.

“First, back in 1980, the United States relied heavily on energy imports to power our economy. At that time, one third of the oil used in the U.S. came from the Persian Gulf. Today, the United States produces as much oil as it gets from abroad, and only 9 percent of those imports comes from Gulf countries.

“Today, the U.S. is not totally dependent on Gulf fossil fuels. But China is. Today, more than 50 percent of China’s oil comes from the Gulf states.

“Second, our allies in the Gulf no longer honor the deal made decades ago. Even though we still have a big physical military presence in the Gulf — bigger than ever before — and we keep giving Gulf nations a pass on human rights violations, too often our Middle East allies act in conflict with our security interests. Recently, for instance, it took a high profile trip from the American President to Riyadh in order to simply convince our supposed allies into producing enough oil to address spiraling global prices. 

“And third, today China now needs the Middle East more than we do. Consider this stunning fact — the value of Saudi fossil fuel exports to China has grown from $1.5 billion in 2000, just about twenty years ago, to $43 billion in 2021. It’s no secret why China is deepening its ties to the region. It’s the Chinese economy, not the U.S. economy, that has become completely dependent on Middle East oil.

“This hearing gives us an opportunity to explore China’s role in the Middle East, and help us craft a policy that enables us to counter China’s influence in the areas that threaten U.S. interests while finding ways to cooperate in the limiting areas where our interests align.

“There’s no question that China’s growing presence in the Middle East presents a challenge to the United States that we have to confront. With such a large U.S. military footprint in the region, we must assure that China does not get its hands on our most sensitive technology. Frankly, that’s why I’ve opposed selling F-35s and our Reaper drones to the UAE.

“And while Middle East oil doesn’t matter to us as much as it used to, it still matters. And so we don’t want China to get a monopoly on the Middle East energy trade.

“China is also an attractive partner to dictators in the region who are looking for more tools of repression and surveillance that the Chinese have perfected. As the world’s leading human rights and democracy defender, the U.S. should push back on the spread of these tools of repression.

“But, at the same time, I hope this hearing considers whether it’s worthwhile to approach every Middle East issue through a lens of U.S.-China competition. For example, China’s recent sale of armed drones to Saudi Arabia does not mean that we should rush to provide them ourselves; the Saudis have a clear record of misusing such weapons against civilians in Yemen, and we are right to distance ourselves from those abuses. In addition, Chinese investments into the vanity projects of shiny new cities for Egypt’s President Sisi and Saudi’s Crown Prince MBS — they pose questionable returns for investors. There’s no compelling reason why the U.S. should be seeking to counter China’s investments into these projects with our own funding.

“And of course there are areas where China and the U.S. share interests. We shouldn’t ignore them. For example, both China and the United States have a shared interest in secure shipping lanes in the Gulf. Both benefit from an Iranian nuclear deal to avoid regional nuclear proliferation. Both the U.S. and China benefit from stability in the region.

“Finally, we should recognize that while China’s influence in the region is increasing, it has its limits, and that the United States’ commitment to the region — despite much hyped fears of abandonment — continues, as we remain the leading security partner for every country in the region (except, of course, for Iran). We shouldn’t be so insecure as to believe that our partners in the Middle East think China can be taken seriously as an alternative to the United States. For example, while the U.S. preserves the security of shipping lanes in the Gulf as a global public good, it’s hard to imagine China acting to preserve anything but its own shipments. And let’s face it — if a war erupted between the Arab Gulf countries and Iran, the Chinese navy is not sailing to anyone’s defense.

“Recognizing these limitations to China’s influence gives us real leverage with the region, and we need to use it to reset our relationships. For decades, our approach to the Middle East has been overly militarized at the expense of economic diversification and inclusive political reform. Which leads me to my last and most important point: We should not deprioritize political and economic reform priorities in the Middle East for the sake of competing with China. Poor, corrupt, and unequal societies make for a combustible mix that can quickly cause superficially stable regimes to collapse quickly. In the long run, the most stable countries are democracies, and we should not lose sight of that goal.

“I look forward to the witness’s testimony today to learn more about how the State Department is diagnosing and taking on this important issue. With that, I’ll turn to the Ranking Member for his opening remarks.”

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