US warns Middle East allies not to give China a military base

President Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to block China’s efforts to establish a military base in the Middle East by warning regional powers that such a partnership with Beijing would jeopardize their security relationship with the United States.

“There are certain categories of cooperation with the PRC that we cannot live with,” the State Department’s Mira Resnick, a deputy assistant secretary in the bureau of political-military affairs, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. “And we have made that clear.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who chaired the hearing, prompted that answer by emphasizing the paradox of Middle East governments discussing arms deals with China while “hoping to maintain [their life under] a U.S. security umbrella.” Whereas former President Donald Trump cited China’s desire to sell weapons in the region to justify U.S. arms deals with Saudi Arabia and others, the dialogue Tuesday put a spotlight on the degree to which security ties to the U.S. could also provide Washington with leverage.

“The current assessment is that China has a global strategy of pursuing military installations all over, including in the Middle East,” the Defense Department’s Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East, added in the conversation. "So, in any country with which we have a deep partnership, we talk about the risks — to U.S. defense technology, to U.S. forces — of a Chinese military installation.”