Here’s a gentle start to the New Year. It’s not a story you’ll find in the Financial Times or New York Times, but it neatly underscores how relations between China and the Middle East are developing. It seems that the Chinese coastal city of Yiwu hosted a football match between China and Jordan on December 31. Why Yiwu? The city is a virtual Arab market town with more than a dozen Arabic restaurants in the main street. The match was a warm-up ahead of the Asian Cup Qualifiers.
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