China is becoming ever more important to global affairs. But political and geopolitical challenges, as well as the covid-19 pandemic, have diminished Europeans’ ability to engage with Chinese thinkers and understand their views and ideas about the world. In this mini-series, Mark Leonard and Janka Oertel try to change that by engaging in conversations with some of the best Chinese academics, researchers, writers, and journalists on diverse topics in Chinese internal debates that matter most to Europeans.  
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In this episode, we are joined by research assistant professor of political science at Tsinghua University, Duan Jiuzhou, who is an expert on the Middle East and North Africa with a special interest in civil-military relations and the political economy of development. Duan talks us through how Chinese scholars view the dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as China’s role in the region. Which countries do Chinese experts view as the major players? What does the Saudi-Iranian detente mean for China’s ambitions as a global peace-broker? And what does the development of Chinese-Middle Eastern relations mean for the world order in the coming decade?

China-Egypt Relations During the BRI Era and Beyond by Duan Jiuzhou in Routledge Handbook on China-Middle East Relations
Initiative and Visions: Synergy between Development Strategies of China and the Arab States in Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies by Duan Jiuzhou & She Gangzheng  

This podcast was recorded on 19 May 2023.

In:Sight China with with Duan Jiuzhou

Short interviews and comments by our experts and others on breaking news and key topics from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) - the first pan-European think-tank. Launched in October 2007, our objective is to conduct research and promote informed debate across Europe on the development of coherent and effective European values-based foreign policy.

Listen also to Mark Leonard's The World in 30 Minutes, our weekly series in which we explore the big issues in foreign policy: https://soundcloud.com/ecfr

In:Sight China with with Duan Jiuzhou

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