Powerful Saudi Arabia appears to set the tone for many Muslim-majority nations seeking Chinese investment.
Muslim men leave a mosque in Beijing after prayers on May 10, the first Friday of Ramadan. By Anna Fifield and Anna Fifield Beijing bureau chief. Email Bio Follow Kareem Fahim Kareem Fahim Istanbul bureau chief covering the Middle East Email Bio Follow May 27 at 6:00 AM BEIJING — In China, the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan can bring even more struggles for Muslims already under relentless pressures.
Much of the tone toward China in the Muslim world has been set by Saudi Arabia, which carries economic and religious clout. As many as 3 million ethnic Uighur Muslims are incarcerated in huge detention camps across Xinjiang, a Pentagon official recently estimated. The Chinese government says these are “vocational training” centers aimed at stamping out terrorism. Family members of the detained, Western governments and human rights advocates say they are a systematic attempt to oppress and “de-Islamicize” an ethnic and religious minority.
Saudi Arabia’s position highlighted the dramatic shifts in the kingdom’s policies under the leadership of the crown prince, who has sought to confront or co-opt Saudi religious conservatives. Mohammed seeks to craft a new Saudi identity that leans more heavily on nationalism than religion. “One of the pillars of Saudi legitimacy is they’re the guardians of the holy sites,” said John Calabrese, director of the Middle East-Asia Project at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “Others would expect that they would take a much more forward-leaning stance on this.”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has twice claimed in interviews not to know anything about the situation of Muslims in China. In Indonesia, the government publicly said that it “would not interfere” in China’s “domestic affairs.” China is the world’s biggest importer of Saudi oil, overtaking the United States in 2009. China bought $46 billion worth of products from Saudi Arabia in 2018, a year in which overall bilateral trade increased by 33 percent to $63 billion.
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