The Middle East in China-Japan relations: shared interests, competition, and rivalry spillover

Since the early twenty-first century, interaction between East Asia and the Middle East has grown considerably. An expected, though understudied, consequence of this development is a gradual spillover of the intra-East Asian political process to the Middle East. Attempting to enhance the understanding of this understudied aspect of East-West Asia relations, as well as new aspects of the China-Japan dynamic, this article explores the competition and possible expansion of the Sino-Japanese rivalry into the Middle East. To examine more concretely we focus on two areas of activities that exceed China’s and Japan’s traditional interests in the Middle East: the utilisation of Middle East events by Japan to loosen its half-century restrictions on the use of military force, and China’s respective response; and Japan’s reaction to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.