How did Arab wealth move to China for fear of the United States?

With concern over the future of its long-term security partnership with the United States, oil-rich Gulf states are seeking to leverage their wealth to deepen relations with China, according to Bloomberg.

Seven months after Chinese President Xi Jinping participated in the first Chinese-Gulf summit in Riyadh, economic exchanges between the world’s second-largest economy and countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates accelerated, surpassing the crude oil purchases that Beijing had dominated for years, the newspaper reported.

Among the deals that could benefit from closer ties in the coming months was an initial public offering in Shanghai planned by China’s seed giant, Singhenta Group, worth $9 billion.

Advisers to the state-backed Chinese company have held discussions with Middle East sovereign funds including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Saudi Public Investment Fund on the possibility of becoming primary investors, people familiar with the subject told Bloomberg.

The data show that this year is about to become the most numerous of all in terms of the number of such deals.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund is stepping up operations in China to seek new investments, according to the agency.

Bloomberg explained that relations between the Gulf and China also extend outside the economic front, as at the December summit Xi offered to broker talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia, leading to a historic agreement, in March, to restore relations between the arch rivals.

Some in Washington are already raising concerns that China’s growing influence in the Middle East could challenge US interests in the long run.

While the United States remains the dominant military partner in the Gulf, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, General Michael Corella, warned in recent congressional testimony of China’s concerted efforts to undermine this, citing a jump in Beijing’s commercial and military sales to the region.

According to the Agency, Gulf officials assert that their movements towards China are not aimed at replacing Washington with Beijing as their main partner. But they also say they want a wider range of global alliances, and China supports this approach.