China brokers Iran-Saudi Arabia detente, raising eyebrows in Washington
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/10/china-saudi-iran-deal/
After decades of U.S. failures in the region, China takes a turn as Middle East power broker
China’s successful brokering of a detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday forced the United States into the awkward position of applauding a major Middle East accord secured by its main geopolitical rival.
“We support any effort to de-escalate tensions there,” White House spokesman John Kirby said of the agreement, which reestablishes diplomatic relations between the arch-nemeses for the first time in seven years and reopens their respective embassies.
The agreement was the result of talks that began Monday as part of an initiative by Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at “developing good neighborly relations” between Tehran and Riyadh, the three countries said in a joint statement. But the signing of the accord in Beijing — which the Biden administration considers its No. 1 geostrategic threat — represents the latest effort by Xi to stake out a larger political presence in the Middle East, where the United States has been the dominant outside power brokering agreements since the end of the Cold War, waging wars and exerting influence in an oil-rich region vital to the world’s energy security.
Last month, China hosted Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, as the two nations cemented a “strategic cooperation” pact. In December, Xi traveled to Saudi Arabia for a state visit.
Saudi Arabia, whose longtime partnership with Washington has soured since the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by associates of the kingdom’s crown prince, applauded Beijing’s involvement in an open press event featuring a three-way handshake between China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi; Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, Ali Shamkhani; and the national security adviser of Saudi Arabia, Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban.
America’s Arab allies in Saudi Arabia and the broader Persian Gulf often lament the criticisms they receive from Washington over human rights abuses and a lack of political freedoms and elections — complaints they do not receive from Beijing. Some observers saw China’s inclusion in the accord as a overt snub.
“What is notable of course is the decision to hand the Chinese a huge public relations victory — a photo op that is intended to demonstrate China’s newfound stature in the region,” said Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution think tank. “In that sense, it would appear to be yet another Saudi slap in the face to the Biden administration.”
On its face, the agreement achieves priorities that the United States has long sought, as tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have threatened the stability of the region and fueled catastrophic conflicts from Syria to Yemen.
“We think it’s in our own interests,” Kirby said, noting his hope that it would lead to an end to the war in Yemen, which has pitted a Saudi-led coalition, backed by American-made jets, against the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants.
For years, the United Nations called the conflict there the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, but the country has enjoyed a rare reprieve from fighting since April when a truce sponsored by the United Nations went into effect. Though the truce expired in October, the peace has largely held, and back-channel talks between the Houthis and the Saudis have resumed.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after the Saudi Embassy in Tehran was attacked and burned by Iranian protesters angered by the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr. The cleric had emerged as a leading figure in protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, a Shiite-majority region in the Sunni-majority nation.
A senior administration official briefed on the talks between Tehran and Riyadh, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions, said the United States has been kept up to date on the negotiations from the beginning, adding that the Saudis made clear to U.S. officials that they were interested in restoring diplomatic ties with Iran.
But the Saudis made clear, too, that they were unwilling to strike such a deal without strong assurance from the Iranians that attacks against them would stop and that they would curtail military support to the Houthis, the official said.
“Riyadh is attempting to buy down the risk of Iran,” said Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
U.S. officials remain uncertain whether the Iranians, ultimately, will honor that commitment, meaning the whole agreement could fall through. By design, the deal does not immediately reestablish diplomatic relations, but rather stipulates the countries will do so in two months with several elements still to be worked out.
Oman also played a significant role in the breakthrough, the senior administration official said, which in part prompted President Biden to call Oman’s sultan this week.
The United States is a major defense provider to Saudi Arabia, including Patriot missile defense batteries. But Lord said allowing China to broker the diplomatic deal would not threaten that relationship. U.S. Central Command, which has thousands of U.S. troops to the kingdom and elsewhere in the Middle East, “will continue to work closely with its regional partners to advance a regional security architecture,” he said. “This agreement won’t come in the way of that.”
Though some in Washington expressed alarm at Beijing’s involvement in the deal, it’s unclear if the Biden administration would have been able to broker it even if it wanted to. Tehran and Washington are barely on speaking terms following the Trump administration’s decisions to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and assassinate the country’s top military commander, Qasem Soleimani.
“Anything that lowers the temperature between Iran and Saudi Arabia and lessens the possibility of conflict is a good thing,” said Matt Duss, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s also a potentially encouraging sign that countries in the region can pursue such initiatives without requiring lots of goodies and guarantees from the U.S.”
Though blunting China’s influence in the Middle East and other parts of the world remains a priority for the Biden administration, it is of “two minds” about the latest agreement, said Jon Alterman, a Middle East scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It wants the Saudis to take increasing responsibility for their own security,” he said, “but it does not want Saudi Arabia freelancing and undermining U.S. security strategies.”
Chinese minister warns of conflict unless US changes course
BEIJING — China’s foreign minister has warned Washington of “conflict and confrontation” if it fails to change course in relations with Beijing, striking a combative tone amid conflicts over Taiwan, COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Qin Gang’s language appeared to defy hopes China’s might abandon confrontational “wolf warrior” rhetoric. It followed an accusation by Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Western governments led by the United States were trying to encircle and suppress China.
Washington’s China policy has “entirely deviated from the rational and sound track,” Qin said at a news conference Tuesday during annual meeting of China’s ceremonial legislature.
China’s relations with Washington and Japan, India and other Asian neighbors have soured as Xi’s government has pursued assertive policies abroad.
“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” Qin said in his first news conference since taking up his post last year. “Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”
On Monday, Xi accused Washington of hurting China’s development.
“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented grave challenges to our nation’s development,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
In the face of that, China must “remain calm, maintain concentration, strive for progress while maintaining stability, take active actions, unite as one and dare to fight,” he said.
A State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said Washington wants to “coexist responsibly” in a global trade and political system and denied the U.S. government wants to suppress China.
“This is not about containing China. This is not about suppressing China. This is not about holding China back,” Price said in Washington. “We want to have that constructive competition that is fair” and “doesn’t veer into that conflict.”
U.S. officials are increasingly worried about China’s goals and the possibility of war over Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory. Many in Washington have called for the U.S. government to make a bigger effort to counter Chinese influence abroad.
Concerns about Chinese spying on the U.S. and Beijing’s influence campaigns there have drawn particular concern.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned visit to Beijing after Washington shot down a Chinese balloon suspected of being used for spying on U.S. territory. Its electronics and optical equipment are being analyzed by the FBI.
Then last week, Beijing reacted with indignation when U.S. officials raised the issue again of whether the COVID-19 outbreak that first was detected in southern China in late 2019 began with a leak from a Chinese laboratory. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the U.S. of “politicizing the issue” in an attempt to discredit China.
The two countries have traded angry words over Taiwan as Xi’s government tried to intimidate the island by firing missiles into the sea and flying fighter planes nearby.
Qin was ambassador to Washington until last year and in a previous stint as Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman was known for cutting condemnation of foreign critics.
On Tuesday, he criticized Washington for shooting down the balloon. He repeated claims that its appearance in U.S. skies was an accident.
“In this case the United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted. It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge,” Qin said. “This is like the first button in a shirt being put wrong and the result is that the U.S.-China policy has entirely deviated from the rational and sound track.”
Qin called Taiwan the first “red line” that must not be crossed.
China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war. The mainland’s Communist Party says the island is obliged to unite with China, by force if necessary.
Washington doesn’t public support either unification or formal independence for Taiwan but is obligated by federal law to see that the island has the means to defend itself.
“The U.S. has unshakable responsibility for causing the Taiwan question,” Qin said.
He accused the U.S. government of “disrespecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” by offering the island political backing and furnishing it with weapons in response to Beijing's threat to use force to bring it under Chinese control.
“Why does the U.S. ask China not to provide weapons to Russia, while it keeps selling arms to Taiwan?” Qin asked.
In Taipei, Taiwan’s defense minister said the armed forces weren’t seeking outright conflict with China’s military, but nor would they back away in the event of Chinese aircraft or ships entering Taiwanese coastal seas or airspace.
“It is the nation’s armed forces’ duty to mount an appropriate response,” Chiu Kuo-cheng told legislators.
Beijing has also accused the West of “fanning the flames” by providing Ukraine with weaponry to fend off the Russian invasion. China says it is neutral but said before the invasion that it had a )“no-limits friendship” with Russia. It has refused to criticize Moscow’s attack or to call it an invasion.
A Chinese call for a cease-fire in Ukraine that has drawn praise from Russia but dismissals from the West has done nothing to lessen tensions. U.S. officials accuse China of considering providing weapons to Moscow for use in the war.
“Efforts for peace talks have been repeatedly undermined. There seems to be an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict and using the Ukraine crisis to serve a certain geopolitical agenda,” Qin said.
The annual meeting of the National People’s Congress is due to endorse the appointment of a new premier and government chosen by the Communist Party in a once-a-decade change.
The meeting also is expected to name Xi to a third term in the ceremonial post of Chinese president after he broke with tradition and awarded himself a third five-year term as ruling party leader in October, possibly preparing to make himself leader for life.
ore of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
UN-backed panel calls on China to improve basic human rights
Jamey Keaten | AP March 6, 2023
GENEVA — U.N.-backed experts Monday urged China to improve its courts’ independence, share data on COVID-19, suspend construction of coal-fired power plants and “immediately” end human rights violations in its western Xinjiang region.
China quickly lashed out at some of the findings released by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is made up of 18 independent experts and works with the U.N.’s human rights office. Beijing in particular blasted the panel’s alleged acceptance of “false information and rumors” about rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
The committee’s findings capped two days of hearings last month on China, one of six countries which had their turns this year at a regular review by the U.N.-backed body. China’s review also included a look at the special administrative regions of Macao and Hong Kong.
The review also aired concerns about lack of transparency, corruption and “unsustainable debt levels” incurred by some countries that have taken part in the Belt and Road Initiative, a China-funded development project. It called on China to increase taxes on carbon emissions to help meet the Paris climate accord’s goals, and do more to transfer wealth from coastal regions to poorer western inland regions.
Furthermore, China was urged to do more to protect the cultural diversity of its religious minorities, while Hong Kong was called on to set up an “independent national human rights institution” to monitor protections of human rights. The review cited a few “positive aspects” on labor rights, adoption of a human-rights action plan, and legal changes to combat domestic violence and boost parental leave time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government has faced accusations that abuses have multiplied as Beijing tried to crush a pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, carried out mass detentions of Muslim minorities and silenced labor, women’s rights and other activists.
The Chinese government deployed dozens of officials for the hearings, which offered a relatively rare opportunity for international rights advocates to face off with and question Chinese authorities.
In its rebuttal, the Chinese government insisted that discrimination was prohibited under the constitution and laws, which put “all ethnic groups on the same footing,” and defended the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for having “strictly implemented” the law.
It provided a point-by-point rejection of the committee’s findings on the Belt and Road initiative, judicial independence, and corruption, among other things.
“Observations cited and accepted some false information and rumors on Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong-related issues, did not pay due attention to authoritative information such as facts and figures provided by China,” the government wrote. “The recommendations arising therefrom are untruthful, full of bias and double standards. China rejected those recommendations.”
