Al Sharq Al Awsat editorial hints at trade frictions

I’m intrigued by this editorial in the Arabic-language Al Sharq Al Awsat. It’s written by Jaafar Karar Ahmad. I haven’t heard of the author before, but he’s reportedly associated with a University in Shanghai. He’s also on record as working for Qatar’s Embassy in Beijing. Either way, he seems to know China. The editorial is largely a review of Arab-China relations over the past sixty years and is generally positive. But what grabbed me was his comment in the final paragraphs “that a mentality of profit rules over Chinese officials charged with developing trade between China and the Arab world”, and that for all China’s talk about increasing its imports from the Arab world, little has been achieved. He writes that this mentality has helped turn China into a major economic power, but that it’s time for China to open its own markets to the Arab world. I’ve argued in earlier blogs, and an editorial, that unless China starts to share some of its economic gains it might find popular sentiment towards it turns. Here’s hoping Karar’s views get some traction in Beijing.