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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Chinese leader Xi Jinping met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a pivotal visit to the Middle East, where the world’s top oil importer deepened relations with the top exporter, in commercial agreements that included energy and technology deals but stopped short of explicitly expanding military cooperation.
An honor guard welcomed the Chinese leader and Prince Mohammed greeted him with a handshake at the Saudi Royal Court on Thursday. Mr. Xi then met King Salman, and the two men signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement affording Riyadh top-tier status in China’s foreign relations. They pledged to visit each other every two years.
The two countries signed dozens of commercial agreements, initially valued at more than $29 billion, in sectors such as clean energy, technology and manufacturing. Those include setting up a Huawei cloud-computing region, building an electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia and supplying green hydrogen batteries for a futuristic smart city the prince wants to build.
Missing from the leaders’ public statements was any mention of the more controversial aspects of a relationship that have raised the hackles of U.S. officials—such as advanced military sales, expansion of 5G and 6G telecommunications networks and pricing some Saudi oil sales in yuan, which accelerated this year, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The talks have unfolded entirely behind closed palace doors.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. Photo: Huang Jingwen/Xinhua/Zuma Press
One of the agreements involves a top Saudi renewable energy company, Acwa Power, and the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.—China’s largest commercial bank, which is a direct participant in CIPS, the Chinese version of SWIFT—hinting at deepening financial cooperation between the countries. SWIFT is a messaging system based in Belgium that provides a secure way for banks to transmit transfer requests to each other.
The ICBC agreement portends a future where Saudi banks can join CIPS, which could accelerate the use of the yuan in Saudi-China oil trade, said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a fellow for international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“This is what policy makers in the United States should be concerned about,” she said.
China elevated its relationship with Saudi Arabia to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” the highest level in China’s network of foreign relations, comprising cooperation in multiple fields, at different layers and in bilateral and multilateral contexts. It has established such ties with about three dozen countries including the U.K., Australia and Russia.
The deals also strengthen the case for Saudi Arabia to join China-led multilateral frameworks such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, said Dr. Liu. “I see this as a real pragmatic partnership,” she added. “China and Saudi are cooperating in areas that can benefit Saudi’s economic diversification plan.”
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The West is scrutinizing Mr. Xi’s visit for clues about Saudi foreign policy and China’s influence in the Middle East. The U.S. has long been the dominant security force in the region but faces chronic doubts about its long-term commitment.
As Mr. Xi arrived, John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said the Biden administration isn’t asking countries to choose between the U.S. and China, but acknowledged that the trip takes place amid strained U.S.-Saudi ties following the October decision by the kingdom and other oil producers to cut production despite requests from Washington.
“We’re mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world. The Middle East is certainly one of those regions where they want to deepen their level of influence,” Mr. Kirby told reporters. He said the way China is going about this threatens the international order that the U.S. and its allies and partners are trying to preserve.
The trip comes as the oil-rich desert kingdom strengthens ties with U.S. rivals amid a global reshuffling of power accelerated by the Ukraine war and heightened tensions between Washington and Riyadh under President Biden, who made his own trip to Saudi Arabia in July.
That visit—and an awkward fistbump between the two men—drew rebukes back home from critics who said the American president was helping gloss over human-rights violations after promising as a candidate to treat Saudi Arabia like a pariah over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And it didn’t seem to remove the personal animosity between him and the 37-year-old crown prince.
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By contrast, Mr. Xi’s trip has included no such hand-wringing, reflecting shared values and growing cultural ties between the two authoritarian regimes, both of which tolerate little public criticism and carefully manage their economies. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, has publicly defended China’s policies in its western region of Xinjiang, giving cover to Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority, and supported China’s position on Taiwan. At home, it is introducing Mandarin into the Saudi school curriculum.
In a letter published in Al Riyadh newspaper as his visit began, Mr. Xi placed his visit in the context of 2,000-year-old ties between the Chinese and Arab civilizations and pointed to China being mentioned in the Quran. “The Arab people value independence, oppose external interference, stand up to power politics and highhandedness, and always seek to make progress,” he wrote.
On Friday, the Chinese leader will attend a large gathering of Gulf and Arab leaders. Some, including the Egyptian president, the Iraqi prime minister and the crown prince of Kuwait, have begun trickling into Riyadh, where streets are lined with their nations’ flags alongside China’s.
Discussions there will likely focus on aligning regional countries’ development plans with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar flagship foreign-policy effort that envisions building railways, ports, roads, dams, pipelines and industrial corridors across dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
The trip caps a big week for global energy markets, following the introduction of a Western price cap and ban on Russian petroleum exports. The Chinese government is backing down from a zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 that has sparked rare protests and dulled global energy demand.
Formal relations between the two countries, first established in 1990, are firmly rooted in energy and trade. China is already Saudi Arabia’s top trading partner and the biggest buyer of its crude. Even as the world looks to renewables, those energy ties are expected to accelerate, with the last barrels of oil likely to come from Saudi fields and be consumed in Asia.
Business between the two countries has expanded to include large contracts for Chinese construction companies, widespread adoption of Chinese technology despite security concerns and the transfer of military hardware such as drones and ballistic missiles, as well as help fabricating uranium yellowcake, which is needed for a nuclear-energy program or nuclear-arms capability.
Washington’s patience with its partners’ dealings with Beijing was tested last year when the Biden administration learned China was secretly building what U.S. intelligence agencies suspected was a military facility at a port in the United Arab Emirates, which also hosts American troops. After rounds of meetings and visits by U.S. officials, construction was halted.
Jets released smoke in the colors of the Chinese flag over Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the day of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival. Photo: Xie Huanchi/Xinhua/Zuma Press
Watch: Xi Jinping Meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
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