Research & Policy Papers

The recent escalation in Yemen has exposed a tension in Chinese thinking about the regional security order. Chinese experts, like Beijing itself, have long called for an end to U.S. military hegemony in the Middle East and the development of a more autonomous regional security framework led by local actors.

The decisive question is not whether Iran will keep selling oil, but through whom – and the answer defines what its relationship with China consists of. Under any settlement currently conceivable, the Islamic Republic is likely to retain a dual export architecture. What is contested in Tehran is the seller.…