For decades China saw the Middle East as a petrol station. Now Chinese money is everywhere in the region
much to see for the first 500km south of Oman’s capital, Muscat, as the highway slices through the Hajar mountains and down a barren coast. Then it hits Duqm, a sleepy fishing village that is being transformed into a mega-port. The government’s hope is to capture a share of the shipping trade between Asia, Africa and Europe. And there, in the middle of nowhere, a consortium of Chinese firms wants to invest $10bn to build a 1,000-hectare industrial zone.
Trade between China and the Arab world is lopsided. In 2017 Tunisia imported $1.9bn worth of goods from China, 9% of its total imports. It exported just $30m to China. “Twenty-five percent of our trade deficit comes from China alone,” says Lotfi Bensassi, an adviser to the prime minister. The trinkets hawked to tourists in souqs are usually made in Chinese factories, not Arab workshops.
Other countries that are active in the region worry about security. A Chinese firm won the tender to operate a new port in Haifa, Israel’s third-biggest city, where American warships often call. America wants Israel to reverse the decision. Oman got a similar warning over Duqm. “They can have a piece of the industrial zone, but we’re keen to keep them out of the military side,” says an American diplomat in Muscat.
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