The Saudis Hedge Their American Bets God may be great, but for Riyadh’s strategic purposes, China’s Xi Jinping apparently is greater. By Walter Russell Mead
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-saudis-hedge-their-american-bets-11551138149
It is, in its way, the most shocking spectacle in world politics since the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union: Even as Beijing is stepping up its persecution of Muslim Uighurs, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia cozied up to Chinese President Xi Jinping on his trip to China last week.
More than a million Uighur Muslims are said to be held in Chinese concentration and “re-education” camps, where beatings and mass rapes are reliably reported to be perpetrated against detainees. Yet the crown prince of the leading Sunni Islamic state signed almost $30 billion in trade agreements with China, hailed the long problem-free relationship between the two countries, pledged support for the Belt and Road initiative, and announced that Saudi Arabia respected China’s need to protect its domestic security in its own way.
God may be great, but Xi Jinping, apparently, is greater. Or at least more useful.
Saudi Arabia is not the only Muslim power kowtowing to China. Pakistan has also fallen strangely silent when it comes to the concentration camps now dotting the landscape in Xinjiang. A country that regularly whips itself into fits of murderous rage over the supposed plight of Muslims in Indian-controlled Kashmir remains rigorously calm about the massive religious repression by its more powerful neighbor.
Another sign of the strange new brotherhood between Islam and its persecutors: Saudi Arabia has pledged $10 billion to help build a refinery in the Pakistani port of Gwadar to speed Gulf oil across Eurasia. Among other things, the refinery will make it easier for China to fuel the vehicles transporting Muslim detainees to concentration camps.
For Americans, the important thing about the Sino-Saudi rapprochement isn’t the eye-watering hypocrisy; human beings can be astonishingly flexible about their principles when their interests change. What matters more is what this tells us about how Washington’s policy mix is shaping calculations in the Middle East. And the news is not good.
The White House hoped that in return for American help against Iran and a U.S. support for the crown prince’s economic reform agenda, Saudi Arabia would align strongly with the U.S. But while presidents have the preponderant voice, foreign policy results from the interplay among the White House, Congress and various interests entrenched in the executive branch.
Congress’s strong reaction to the Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi, combined with its skepticism of Riyadh’s Yemen strategy, threatens to torpedo the Trump Middle East policy. As the U.S. pulls away from the Yemen war, and as Congress pushes to impose sanctions on Saudis close to the crown prince over their alleged roles in the Khashoggi murder, some in the Saudi elite have lost faith in the possibility of a stable strategic partnership with the U.S. They worry President Trump cannot deliver. CONTINUE AT SITE
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