I’m betting you heard/read nothing about the visit made by China’s Xi to Saudi, last week (12/7-9).  It’s a black-eye to the U.S.  The two countries met to expand relations on a swathe of global issues, including energy, security, Iran’s nuclear program, the crisis in Yemen and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Among a number of covered topics outlined in a 4,000-word joint statement, published by the Saudi Press Agency, identified neither country would interfere with the other’s internal policies or domestic issues.

Whereas, Washington (White House & Legislature) has criticized both countries for their human rights records and has identified a number of human rights violations and abuses committed by China and Saudi Arabia.

In June, the U.S. banned all goods produced in China’s western Xinjiang region, where the State Department estimates up-to two million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups, since 2017, have been imprisoned in a shadowy network of internment camps where they were subjected to inhumane treatment (ie. physical and sexual abuse, forced labor, and death). Chinese officials have consistently denied any and all allegations of human rights abuses.

In 2021, U.S. intelligence reported that Saudi crown prince/ruler Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in an operation that led to the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  MBS denied the allegations.

By no means do I condone inhumane treatment!  However, if the U.S. wants to vizably assume the position of the world’s cop, it’ll have to be much more diplomatic when promulgating it’s unacceptable views/positions on foreign countries.

On 12/8/22, China and Saudi Arabia signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement that includes a number of agreements and memoranda of understanding, including: hydrogen energy, on coordination between the kingdom’s Vision 2030 (I recommend you research this topic), China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and direct investments.

Xi was warmly welcomed which was in stark contrast to the frigid greeting President Joe Biden received from the Saudi kingdom earlier in the year.

Biden, who previously vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah after the murder of Khashoggi, said, in October, the U.S. needs to re-assess its relationship with the kingdom after the Saudi-led oil cartel OPEC+ slashed oil production – in coordination with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine & halting of oil and gas to European countries.

As a result, Saudi Arabia has been actively searching to diversify its alliances at the onset of criticism by the US and its varied hypocrisies. 

Saudi Arabia “is pursuing a multi-polar strategy of strategic ties,” stated Saudi author and analyst Ali Shihabi.  “Even the US with all its capabilities spent two decades, $US trillions, and lost countless lives, trying to reform Iraq and Afghanistan, only to fail miserably,” he wrote.  Shihabi continues, “…from the Saudi perspective, there has been frustration as US politicians keep defining the Kingdom by the Khashoggi murder, the Yemen war and human rights, only to stand idly by its hypocrisy.”

“At a time when Saudi Arabia is seeking to advance its economic diversification plans, China is a strong partner to have and much less critical compared to other western states,” wrote Amena Bakr, chief OPEC correspondent at Energy Intelligence.

It coordinates with China, India, Russia on oil, and with the United Kingdom and France as alternatives to the US on arms sales, he said, “while maintaining a hopefully solid but inevitably bumpy relationship with its old friend the US.”

I suggest researching China’s Belt and Road Initiative to understand the long-term objectives this country has for its future and where it assigns the U.S.’s participation – a castigation by any measure.

The U.S. Legislature, with the adroit Biden Administration, is outlining future international relationships to be lost and, thereby, defining the future of the U.S. on a global stage.

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

 ―  Plato

Submitted by:

Gil Olachea
Ceramica, Scottsdale, AZ