China Uses Middle East Crisis to Raise Its Profile but Its Ships Fail to Respond to Attack

 The Soufan Center, an independent non-profit research organization based in New York, published on 4 December 2023 an intelligence brief titled "China Uses Middle East Crisis to Raise Its Global Profile."

Beijing sees the crisis in Gaza as an opportunity to advance its efforts to undermine U.S. and European dominance of the global order.  But Beijing has been unwilling or unable to rein in Iran's attempts to expand the conflict and is reluctant to become militarily involved in stabilizing the region.

When a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden came under attack on 26 November by five Somali pirates based in Yemen, a US naval vessel thwarted the seizure and arrested the five assailants.  Three vessels from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy were also near the distressed ship but did not respond to a call for help.  

China's New Leaders and Africa

The Brookings Institution published a brief analysis in January 2013 titled "China's New Leadership and Sino-Africa Relations."  The authors are all associated with the Africa Growth Initiative: Yun Sun, visiting fellow; Julius Agbor, Africa research fellow; and Jessica Smith, research assistant.

The analysis concludes it is highly unlikely that China's new leadership will pursue any major policy change toward Africa.