China's Economic and Political Presence in the Middle East and South Asia.

• Author: Altintas, Mustafa

By Mehran Haghirian and Luciano Zaccara

Routledge, 2023, 240 pages, $160, ISBN: 9781032216041

China, boasting the second-biggest economy in the world, pursued an enormous project called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. This project aims to revive the ancient Silk Road in line with China's economic targets. The book Chinas Economic and Political Presence in the Middle East and South Asia, edited by Mehran Haghirian and Luciano Zaccara, investigates the relationship between China and Middle Eastern, North African, and Southern Asia countries within the framework of the BRI. The book presents a holistic perspective to understand China's presence in different regions. While highlighting China's non-interference policy in each chapter, the book underlines possible risks and opportunities for the countries in question. The book consists of 10 chapters (excluding the introduction) focusing on different areas.

The first chapter introduces Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries' relations with China under three main topics, namely economics, politicssecurity, and historical, ethnic, and cultural, by referring to the influence of external actors Russia and the U.S. This chapter analyzes the relations using the data from Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in MENA regions. With A Global FDI's data, the chapter indicates Chinese expansion worldwide. Significantly, after the launch of the BRI project (in the period between 2015 and 2018), Chinese investment increased by 137 percent in the MENA region (p. 15). The data also shows that Chinese involvement with MENA countries is not only related to the energy sector but also extends to the transport and real estate sectors.

Chapter 2 analysis China-Iran relations by employing role theory. It first defines the middle and great powers and goes on to examine China-Iran role conceptions. The Iran Revolution and Chinese expansion after the 1980s provided that these states had similar "otherness." For that reason, the chapter highlights "non-Western identity as the fundamental feature of Sino-Iranian relations" (p. 50). Chapter 3 presents a comparative analysis of the sanction's effect on Iran. While Iran's economic dependency on China increased amid sanctions, this also occurred in the peer countries at the same time, particularly following both the European Union's (EU) and U.S.' sanctions against Iran in 2016. In line with this comparison, Iran's eastward turn was more circumstantial...