Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah arrived in China yesterday for talks with top leaders about possible energy cooperation and anti-terror measures.
The three-day visit is the first to China by a Saudi ruler since the two countries formed diplomatic relations in 1990
The world's number two oil consumer, China has been scouring the globe for crude to feed its booming economy and the king's visit follows soon after Beijing's first formal talks with OPEC in late December.
Chinese analysts said that while China is eager for stable oil supplies, it has neither the cash nor will to challenge the US -- Saudi Arabia's top diplomatic ally outside the region and also its biggest oil customer -- for its role in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia was China's top supplier of oil in the first 11 months of last year, providing 17 percent of its imports, nearly 440,000 barrels per day (bpd).
But this was under a third of shipments to the US over the same period, at 1.43 million bpd.
China and the US both want to see oil flowing uninterrupted from the Middle East, said one Chinese energy expert with government connections who declined to be named.
"If the US is willing to keep soldiers there, we are happy to keep quiet. This trip has potential [only] in the imaginations of people in Washington who worry about the China connection ... maybe it's in the Saudi interest to leave room for imagination," said the energy expert.
Saudi desires to avoid highlighting its ties to Washington, as much as long-term strategic planning, may have pushed China to the top of the king's agenda, said Zhang Bin (張斌) of the Center for Energy Strategy at the foreign ministry think-tank China Institute of International Studies.
"At the moment the United States has a lot of problems in the Islamic world. Its relationship is not very good, so they may have wanted to avoid going there first," he said.
China and Saudi Arabia have dramatically expanded commercial ties in recent years as Beijing tries to expand energy supplies for its booming economy.
The main Saudi government oil company, a Chinese producer and Exxon Mobil Corp. are partners in a US$3.5 billion project to expand a refinery in southern China.
Total trade between the two countries -- much of it Saudi oil bought by China -- grew by 59 percent in the first 11 months of 2005 to US$14 billion.
China is already in talks about establishing a free trade area with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional economic organization with the six member states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Topics on the table for discussion besides energy will be counter-terrorism and military cooperation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting a campaign launched by Islamists sympathetic to al-Qaeda to topple the monarchy. China also says it faces a security threat from Muslim extremists in Xinjiang.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of