On December 31, 2013, as we prepared to welcome the New Year, a Chinese naval vessel was leaving the Saudi port of Jeddah to escort Syrian chemical weapons en route to be destroyed in the Mediterranean. This example demonstrates that China is a supplier of security public goods in the Middle East, and that China is willing to contribute more to Middle East security.

But for some years, U.S. scholars and journalists have criticized China for "free-riding" and "over-consuming" security public goods provided by the United States. The media attacks reached a new peak when statistics provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicated that in September 2013 China had overtaken the United States to become the world's leading importer of crude oil.

An article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 10, 2013 entitled "Middle East Oil Fuels Fresh China-U.S. Tensions" argued that "for years, China and other oil-consuming nations have benefited as Washington spent billions of dollars a year to police chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and other volatile parts of the Middle East to ensure oil flowed around the globe".

These arguments, although enthusiastically supported in the U.S. media and academia, are entirely groundless. Far from being a security provider, the United States has, in many ways, undermined peace and stability in the region. China, far from being a beneficiary, has been a victim of the irresponsible behavior of the United States in the region. The oil price has risen from around 2o dollars a barrel to roughly 100 dollars a barrel since China's oil imports began to accelerate rapidly.

It is also quite wrong to say China does not provide security goods. On the contrary, China has contributed a great deal towards safeguarding security in the region. China has contributed approximately two thousand peacekeeping troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) since 2006, and has also contributed a large proportion of the peacekeeping troops in Sudan and South Sudan over the last ten years.
China's anti-piracy actions off the coast of Somalia are another major contribution. Since December 26, 2008, China has dispatched 16 Task Forces to the Gulf of Aden, each of them composed of no less than three warships. According to reports, up to 22 December, 2013, the Chinese Task Forces had escorted 5,460 ships, including 2,765 foreign ships. They have also escorted seven ships of the World Food Program in cooperation with the European Union Combined Task Force 465 (EU CTF- 465).

China's latest efforts, helping the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) destroy Syria's chemical weapons, are yet another contribution to Middle East regional security. The warship already at sea will provide an escort for vessels carrying chemical weapons from Latakia to a location in the Mediterranean, where they will be destroyed as part of the global program to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. Though it is a new mission in a new place, it is believed that the Chinese navy, together with those of other countries, will cooperate well and finish the job together.

Undeniably, despite all these examples, China's contribution to Middle East security is still modest. But its significance should not be overlooked. China's security engagements are widely regarded as positive both because they take place under the framework of either the United Nations or other international organizations, and because what they provide are truly public goods.

While visiting China's peacekeeping training center in June 2013, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that "China is taking on more responsibility in line with its increasing economic growth. Its dedication and contribution to U.N. peacekeeping missions is crucial for peace and security". His comment could actually be applied to all China's security engagements in the Middle East.

By contrast, the military presence and actions of the United States are widely contested, and even regarded as having a negative impact in most cases. The wars that the United States has launched, unilaterally and multilaterally, in the region have severely undermined the regional order and worsened the security situation. Many even believe that the United States is making use of its increasingly tarnished legitimacy to station forces in the region in pursuit of its own national agenda, the containment of Iran for example, rather than to provide security.

U.S. criticism of China is also very poorly founded. The logic behind the criticism is actually very simple. China is not willing to get involved in military actions organized under a U.S. framework, but is willing to do so within a U.N. framework. This criticism simply reflects U.S. frustration at not being able to integrate China into its own structures.

It can be predicted with some confidence that in the future, as China's defense capabilities grow, she will be more able, and more willing, to contribute to global security efforts in the region. But the question is whether the United States will welcome China playing a bigger role within the framework of the U.N. and other international organizations.

Source of documents：China.org.cn