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Sceptics query China's economic and political ability to realize its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Less attention has been paid to BRI's implications for one of the defining features of China's foreign policy: low engagement in areas beyond its traditional sphere of influence. The Middle East is such a case. Addressing this issue, the article explores the mutual impact of China's low political involvement in the Middle East and BRI's realization. Distinguishing cross-border connectivity projects from other BRI-associated activities, the article examines the challenges to executing BRI-related projects in Israel. It finds that realizing connectivity projects – the essence of the BRI vision – will require China to increase its regional engagement, a shift that it has so far avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring Sino-Israeli economic relations comprehensively for the first time, this article suggests that this connection allowed the two states to overcome the defence crises that the relationship experienced in the early 2000s. After 2010, as China resolved to enhance relations with Israel, economic ties continued to fulfil a prominent role. Nevertheless, achievements have been mixed. Apparently, investments of Chinese firms in Israel and construction of infrastructure projects in Israel by Chinese corporations are the most successful activities, but they arouse mixed responses in Israel and may have political implications yet to be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the early 2010s, there have been mounting calls in China to intensify its role in the Middle East. But seeing the region as highly turbulent, Beijing seems to restrain its political involvement there. So what role does China actually strive for in the Middle East? To answer this question, the article first presents China’s discourse on its future role in the region; next, it analyzes China’s involvement in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Syrian civil war, focusing on three diplomatic initiatives it has made concerning these issues. The argument here is that China strives to be part of major processes in the Middle East and attempts to advance its values and interests there, but in a unique pattern of big-power involvement in the region, it tries to achieve this without intensive investment of political, economic, and military resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As most studies on Middle East–East Asian relations focus on the interregional dimension, the manner in which relations between East Asian powers influence, and are influenced by, their policies in the Middle East are largely overlooked. Attempting to add another layer to the study of Sino-Japanese relations, this article explores whether Sino-Japanese rivalry extends to the Middle East. This undertaking requires a conceptual distinction between measures related to Sino-Japanese competition in the Middle East and measures which are related to their rivalry. Building on a minimal definition of interstate rivalry, the article argues that neither the effort to secure energy supply nor their economic or political competition there is shaped by their rivalry. The only field that can be associated with that rivalry is Japan's quasi-military activity in the Middle East, which may enhance its security policy's revision. That, in turn, causes much concern and criticism in Beijing, thus assigning the region a certain role in their relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article attempts to lay out a conceptual framework for evaluating the actual military value of China's newly developed weaponry. Its basic assumption is that technological military progress is not sufficient to increase military strength. Therefore an alternative approach is adopted that studies the adaptability of the new technologies to the country's strategic situation. To this end, the study assumes that the value of a weapon system is measured by its suitability to the country's military, economic and technological conditions. The country's ability to meet these requirements depends to a large extent on the procurement process. Exploring China's recent military procurement approach, the study finds that under the prevailing conditions, China's military procurement process could reduce the actual military value of the newly developed weaponry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]