China refuses formal anti-Western alliances but seeks informal oil partners among Islamic states.

Evidence

Enthusiasm for a close anti-Western alliance of Confucian and Islamic states, however, has been rather muted on the Chinese side, with President Jiang Zemin declaring in 1995 that China would not establish an alliance with any other country. This position presumably reflected the classical Chinese view that as the Middle Kingdom, the central power, China did not need formal allies, and other countries would find it in their interest to cooperate with China. China’s conflicts with the West, on the other hand, mean that it will value partnership with other anti-Western states, of which Islam furnishes the largest and most influential number. In addition, China’s increasing needs for oil are likely to impel it to expand its relations with Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia as well as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Such an arms-for-oil axis, one energy expert observed in 1994, “won’t have to take orders from London, Paris or Washington anymore.” — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 661

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the forecasting literature on Sino-Islamic state relations and energy geopolitics; Jiang’s no-alliance stance echoes the Middle Kingdom tribute-system logic in earlier chapters.