Taylah BlandandRachel Horne

Opinion | China-Saudi relationship is evolving beyond oil to help reshape the Middle East

Both Beijing and Riyadh have much to gain from strengthening their partnership, with Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States becoming increasingly strained and China in search of greater diplomatic influence in the Middle East and energy security amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman outside the al-Yamama Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 8, 2022. Photo: Saudi Press Agency/ AP

Taylah BlandandRachel Horne

Published: 3:30am, 1 Apr 2023

China helped broker a normalisation of long-fraught relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran earlier this month, a deal that came after years of attempted overtures between the two Arab countries.

Beijing’s role in the forging the agreement and its desire to strengthen relations with both Iran and Saudi Arabia shows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s changing calculus. China is looking to move the focus of relations past trade and towards strategic, long-term interests.

Last year’s China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Riyadh was the highest-level diplomatic event between China and the Arab world since the founding of the People’s Republic.

At the event, Xi said China and GCC countries would work together on issues spanning finance, science and technology, aerospace, language and culture. In response, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – who chaired the summit on behalf of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – praised Xi’s leadership of China, which he said has made “huge development achievements and become a major progressive force steering global governance”.

Historically, the China-Saudi relationship revolved around oil. In 2022, Saudi Arabia reclaimed its position as China’s largest oil supplier. In November, Saudi Arabia exported 1.77 million barrels per day to China, making the oil trade between the two worth US$55.5 billion.

In 2021, bilateral trade reached US$87.3 billion, with China’s crude oil imports accounting for US$43.9 billion of that sum. In the first two months of this year, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China’s largest oil supplier after sanctions that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Moscow to lower its prices.

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