I first visited Yiwu in 2017 after a Syrian businessman in Shanghai encouraged me to speak to those who, in his opinion, could give me an insight into the true nature of China-Middle East trade.

I spent the spring of 2019 in China, teaching at New York University’s campus in Shanghai. On several occasions during that period I was told that many people in China viewed Jews positively, even if they’d never actually met one.

While the strategic expansion into the Arab region by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), driven by China’s insatiable demand for oil and other natural and strategic resources, has received both scholarly and public attention, there is hardly any research on the growing activities of the BRI’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) sub-initiative, and how they play out in countries of the region.

Over the past two decades, China has become Africa’s most important economic partner, prompting considerable debate on the drivers and impacts of China’s relations in the region.

In January 2022, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain arrived in China for a five-day visit with their Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. This collective visit, which also seemingly solidified what policy analysts have been referring to as ‘the Gulf’s eastward turn,’ signaled a potential loosening of American hegemony in the region.

Language is a wide-ranging subject. I would like to use this short blog to share my thoughts about why it is important to consider the Chinese language when we talk about 21st century Sino-Arab relations.