China outpaces US in Mideast influence without troops — SkimNews
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- China has expanded Middle East influence over the past decade while stationing no troops beyond a single base in Djibouti — a country where the U.S. base is roughly six times larger — even as Washington maintained at least 19 military facilities (8 considered permanent) across the region before Operation Epic Fury.
- Operation Epic Fury left both the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and the Qatar command center, which had coordinated regional air operations for more than two decades, effectively inoperable after Iranian strikes.
- China is the Arab states' largest trading partner and hosts the China-Arab States Summit launched in 2022, while Beijing brokered the 2023 Saudi-Iranian normalization deal despite lacking any military footprint comparable to America's.
- Gulf governments have repeatedly turned to Beijing to pressure Tehran — first over the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian retaliation, and more recently to rein in the Houthis — even as they maintain close security ties with Washington.
- Gulf monarchies have consistently resisted U.S. efforts to organize the region around great-power competition, instead deepening relations with China while preserving American security partnerships.
- The author urges the Pentagon to close its most exposed bases and consolidate around a few strategic outposts farther from Iran — citing Jordan, western Saudi Arabia, the Horn of Africa, or parts of Europe as viable alternatives for protecting limited U.S. interests.
Why it matters: The author argues Washington has spent trillions defending 19 vulnerable regional bases while China secured comparable influence through Belt and Road investment and shuttle diplomacy alone — meaning the Pentagon could shutter its most exposed installations and still safeguard Gulf oil flows and counterterrorism goals through arms sales, capacity building, and intelligence sharing.
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