Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Abstract

Energy security is considered one of the most important elements of national security strategy, as it is the main factor determining industrial capacity, which forms the basis of military power. China, which owes being a global actor significantly to its growing economy and strong industrial capacity, and whose energy needs are increasing, considers securing its energy needs as part of an important foreign policy agenda.
The radical changes experienced by the Middle East security architecture in the post-2010 period have led to important results in terms of China’s energy security. The most important one among these results was the transfer of the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia from the ideological field to the geopolitical field through intensifying proxy wars. In this process, increasing attacks on energy transport lines revealed a serious threat to the energy security of China, which gets more than half of its total oil imports from the Gulf region.
It is clearly seen that China, whose energy need is rapidly increasing and is in a global competition with the US, is expected to develop a military power projection for the region in order to protect its interests in the Gulf. However, China avoids this power projection policy and pursues active neutrality in the Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry, and develops good relations with both actors. China’s active neutrality in this competition and its policy of developing close relations with both actors is closely related to the strategy of securing its energy needs.