Economic diplomacy and China's strategy in regulating relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia

In March 2021 during the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Tehran and after several months of controversies, Wang and his Iranian then-counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif finally signed a 25-year bilateral strategic partnership agreement. The agreement promises to expand Iran’s relations with the world's second-largest economy.  It seems that the current developments in the field of international politics and the intensification of competition between China and the United States on the one hand and the experience of the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the failure of the European parties to adhere to their commitments, on the other hand, had clearly heighten Iran’s eastward foreign policy. In this regard, one of the questions that arises is about the existing strategic relations between China and Saudi Arabia and China's approach toward the geopolitical competition between Riyadh and Tehran. This article tries to explain China's foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region based on economic diplomacy and examines China’s relationship with the two main powers in the Persian Gulf, namely, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Resorting to the strategic hedging strategy, Beijing tries to avoid entering into geopolitical dualities and guarantee its strategic interests by pursuing strategic relations with both great regional powers