Introduction

Abstract

Over the last few years, China has definitively surpassed the United States as the world’s leading energy consumer and net importer of oil. Thus, China’s relations with the Middle East appear poised to become an ever more important issue with global implications, as the latter region possesses the world’s largest crude oil reserves.¹ In this pioneering volume, we attempt to clarify for lay readers several closely related topics that are critical to understanding the relevance of China’s rise to the aspirations of various Middle Eastern nations, how Chinese energy needs are changing, and the ways in which a more economically powerful China might seek to reconfigure its ties with various Middle Eastern stakeholders.