Is the name of a relatively new book by economist Ben Simpfendorfer, describing the tightening relations between China and Arab countries.

I had the privilege of interviewing Ben few weeks ago for Calcalist, and was surprised of how much buzz the piece I wrote caused back home (Israelis are usually see themselves more as producers than consumers of international news stories).  Here is an incomplete translation of the interview.

I left out some historical background on the original silk road, mainly out of laziness. You can read some more on the book’s site and also in this interview  on Evan Osnos New-Yorkers blog.

I mentioned before some signs that China is ready to get more involved in the Mid-East, as part of it’s growing international profile. Personally, I see it as a very positive prospect. I’ve always admired the Chinese common sense, exactly the ingredient we in the Mid-East so badly lack.

 So here goes:

China and the Arabs – a Love Story 

A new book puts the story of emerging China in a new light, telling it from the angle of  China’s relationship with the Middle East. This relationship grow stronger through the activities of investors, diplomats, oil companies, governments, but also tens of thousands of traders and small business owners who together push forward economic connections between the two ends of Asia. All of these together help shifting the centre of the global economy eastward. This shift has far reaching projections on the world economy, on the future of the Middle East and perhaps most of all, on Israel. 

“The rise of China is usually being covered from one perspective alone – that of the relations between China and the US or the EU” explains Ben Simpfendorfer, Chief China economist for RBS and author of the book “The New Silk Road”. “Similarly, the rise of the Arab world is being told from the same perspective, of it’s relationship with the west, and the potential or the risks this rise presents, especially to the US. In the book, I wanted to connect the dots, to examine the relationship between The Far East and the Middle East. I wanted to show how the emergence of these two regions isn’t just parallel, but also interdependent. The exchange of ideas nowadays isn’t happening between East and West anymore, but between East and East”.

Simpfendorfer has been working for major investment banks in Beijing and Hong Kong for the last 9 years, but he started his professional life in the Middle East, as a student of Arabic in Damascus, and was then helping Western Companies to establish business in Syria and Lebanon. By the end of the 90’s, the Oslo agreement collapsed, the region got unstable again and the number of companies interested in investing declined. Simpfendorfer went back to Britain, but did not give up the zeal for studying foreign cultures. When opportunity presented itself, he took up a job in Beijing and started learning Chinese, leaving his Middle Eastern adventure behind.

But then, he explains, something strange happened: Parallel to the meteoric rise of China since 2000, the Arab World also got out of a long period of stagnation and showed fast growth figures. Simpfendorfer decided to investigate the connection between those two processes. His conclusions are presented in a book: The New Silk Road: How a rising Arab world is turning away from the west and rediscovering China.

“In the west, we are used to look at the Sino-Arab connection as oil based, and of course, the Middle East is China’s main oil supplier” He says, “But this story is first and foremost the story of small businesses and business people who build the relationship on the local level. The trade between China and the Arab world is carried out but tens of thousands of small traders like the small importer selling clothing at a Damascus market”.

Those traders, Simpfendorfer explains, were pretty much forced to discover China when they got shut out of another major market: After 9/11, traders from Syria, Egypt and other countries found many closed doors in the US. Business people suddenly found it hard to get a visa, and were sometimes even arrested at US airports. Those who based their businesses on the American economy begun looking elsewhere, and they found China, who joined the WTO that same year.

“The Muslim minority plays an important role in building this relationship” Simpfendorfer explains. “It seems that the Chinese government encourages the participation of the Chinese-Muslims in trade with the Arab world, because it is a way to get them to participate in the economy and improve their living standard”.

 One surprising example is a mosque that was built specifically for Arab Traders in Yiwu. Officially, China is still an atheistic country, and puts limits on it’s citizens freedom of religion, but when the newcomers needed religious services, the local government encouraged the building of a mosque and an Arab school, an act that farther strengthened the motivation of Arab traders to come there for business. Yiwu became a Middle-Eastern hamlet in the heart of China, with the highest concentration of Middle-Eastern restaurants in East-Asia. The rumor on China’s Arabtown drew thousands of Chinese Muslims students of Arabic who came there to work as interpreters.

Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank were among the firsts to discover Yiwu, and they still use the place today as a base to export goods to wealthy Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia or Dubai. Other traders from Egypt, Syria, Yemen and other places bring home from Yiwu not only cheap electronics and one dollar leather belts, but also the news of the new and friendly superpower, and the lessons that can be learned from it.

Learning, Simpfendorfer explains, is fundamental to this story. Some Middle Eastern countries – especially the poorer ones like Syria and Egypt – are starting to look up to China as a model for economic development. “The governor of a Syrian province, El-Haska, recently visited the Central Chinese province of Hunan” he demonstrates. “He did not go to Shanghai, but to Hunan, which is a poor and rural province, that exports human capital to the industrial hubs of East China. It is interesting because the Syrian province can learn a lot from Hunan. The governor can hear ideas on how to create jobs, how to fight poverty, and how to cooperate with other provinces. In many ways, El-Haska can get more relevant ideas in Hunan than in Washington or London”.

Do you think the Syrians are also more open to accept Chinese ideas?

Definitely. China is less antagonizing. Many of the ideas you hear in China are actually western ideas: Opening of the capital market, encouraging foreign investment etc. But China took those ideas, took out the parts it didn’t like, changed them so they better suit a developing country, and it did all this with remarkable success. So if a stock exchange was opened in Damascus this year, I see it as a Chinese influence”.

….

China is putting much time and effort into the relationship. Chinese women, for example, who are opening businesses in Dubai are portrayed in the Chinese media as national heroines. Studying Arabic in a top university is a fast track to the Chinese diplomatic service, and Arabic speaking Chinese officials or regularly being interviewed on “Al Jazeerah”, answering difficult questions in a way they almost never do on CNN or BBC. Whether justified or not, it seems that the Chinese and Arabs share suspicions and similar complaints towards Europe and the US. This is yet another factor that helps promoting mutual understanding between the two rising powers.

“If we take Syria again” Says Simpfendorfer, “We can say there is the old Syria, with it’s problematic regime, and there is the new Syria, trying to become more economically advanced. The west is totally focused on the old Syria. The Chinese, in sharp contrast, see only the new Syria”.

Many in the west, and more in Israel, will probably see this new and intimate relationship as a nightmare come true, but Simpfendorfer insists it is a positive development. “The new silk road can bring more stability to the middle east. I believe the region today needs to focus on economic reforms rather than political ones, and China can play an important role here. The US needs to encourage this trend”

And what about Israel? Do we need to encourage Chinese involvement in the area, or should we be threatened by it?

It is important to understand: The Chinese interest in the region is purely economic. It cannot be expected to promote any political interest of any kind. The last thing China wants is a war in the Middle east, that would push oil prices up – and it should be remembered the soon 70% of China’s oil imports will come from the region. The Chinese influence can be a stabilizing one. After all, the Middle East peace process tried for years to focus on politics, and it led you nowhere. Perhaps with the help of the Chinese, the focus can be shifted towards economic interests. I think it worth a try”.