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Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss the nature and extent of China’s engagement in the Middle East. Should the United States be concerned about China’s growing involvement in Middle Eastern affairs? If so, what can and should be done about it? Perhaps just as importantly, what should not be done? Grievances for those who dreamed up the Gaza Pier debacle, Sen. Roger Wicker for his supposed “generational” commitment to growing the Pentagon’s budget, and for Canadian parliamentarians who are just a little bit too close to nefarious foreign actors (“semi-witting” accomplices?). Attapeople to the Philippines’s President Bongbong Marcos and to the 12 jurors in Manhattan.

Episode Reading

• Jon B. Alterman, “The ‘China Model’ in the Middle East,” Survival, vol. 66 no. 2, April-May 2024, pp. 75-98.
• Dale Aluf, “China’s Influence in the Middle East and Its Limitations,” The Diplomat, February 26, 2024.
• Jane Edwards, “Sen. Roger Wicker Calls for Generational Investment in US Military Through New Report,” ExecutiveGov, May 30, 2024.
• William Hartung, “Wicker’s Pentagon Spending Plan Doubles Down on a Failed Strategy,” Forbes, May 30, 2024.
• Ellen Laipson and Doug Ollivant, “A Delicate Balance: Iraq’s Security Culture Between Iran and the United States,” Survival, vol. 66 no. 2, April-May 2024, pp. 99-114.
• Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., Keynote Address, Shangri-La Dialogue, May 31, 2024.
• Laurence Norman, “Biden Administration Presses Allies Not to Confront Iran on Nuclear Program,” Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2024.
• Press Release, American Enterprise Institute, May 14, 2024.
• Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Processes and Institutions, National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, June 3, 2024.

Image: Chinese Premier Xi Jinping meets with Bahrain’s king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, in Beijing on May 31, 2024. Image via the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.