The signing of contracts worth 28 billion euros has already been announced. But Xi hopes to profile his country not only as a trading partner, but also as a competitor of the US in the Arab world. However, US President Joe Biden told Arab leaders during his visit to Riyadh in July: “We are not walking out of here and leaving a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran.”
Xi holds the summit with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and his son Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler in the country from which China receives a quarter of its oil exports.
He also speaks with the leaders of the Gulf states in Riyadh and there is an Arab-Chinese summit on Friday. The People’s Republic of China was once wary of the fiefdoms and tribes of the Middle East and had relations almost exclusively with countries where a socialist or communist leader had seized power. But now Beijing maintains relations with virtually all Arab League countries and trades vigorously with kings, sheikhs, emirs, ayatollahs and princes.