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The China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership (CSP) has been described as a potentially disruptive alignment. This article analyses the impact of the CSP in two regional security complexes (RSCs): the Persian Gulf and South Asia. It finds that of the two RSCs, the China-Iran CSP has a greater likelihood of affecting the strategic landscape of the South Asian RSC as China seeks to contain India's power and influence. In the Persian Gulf, China's economically-motivated regional presence is supported by the maintenance of the status quo, and as a result the CSP is not likely to adversely affect that RSC. (Asian Aff/GIGA)

Saudi Arabia's geostrategic location and role as a Middle East regional power, combined with its ambitious Saudi Vision 2030 development plan, make it an important Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner for China, which has become Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. Despite mutual interests, the role of the United States as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf region means that the Sino‐Saudi Arabia relationship must be managed in such a way that it does not directly challenge Washington. This article argues that China has followed a strategic hedging approach in developing its relations with Saudi Arabia, focusing on the economic and developmental goals of the BRI and Saudi Vision 2030 to avoid antagonizing the United States (US) while taking advantage of US regional security commitments.

China's involvement with the Gulf monarchies has been built upon an economic foundation. With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) this has expanded, as the Gulf monarchies see cooperation with China through MSRI projects as a means of advancing economic development programs necessary to move beyond single-resource rentier economies and relationships with external powers as a means of ensuring their security in an unstable region. This has important implications for the shape of the MSRI as a whole, and how it fits together with the larger BRI. China's BRI/MSRI success with participating states will be a matter of matching their specific domestic needs and strategic considerations with Chinese perceptions of the relative importance of those states. (J Contemp China/GIGA)