Recently, Trump boarded "Air Force One", concluding his Middle East trip. His visit certainly seemed impressive, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar signing deals worth $600 billion and over $200 billion respectively. However, the issue lies in the fact that professionals have analyzed: many of these projects are essentially mutual promises without real substance. Many orders signed during the Biden administration have yet to be implemented. But this is not a concern for Chinese netizens; instead, they are interested in the true purpose of Trump's visit and whether it has any connection to China.
In fact, when accepting interviews about the Middle East trip, Trump no longer hid his intentions. In one sentence, he revealed one of the most important purposes of this Middle East visit: to disrupt China's strategic deployment.
After finishing his Middle East trip, Trump emphasized the following two points in an interview with Fox News:
1. This place is very important, as it is the world's energy center and crucial to every region.
2. Because this area can solve China's fuel problem, they were heavily lured by China, and they did indeed lean towards China at one point. However, this situation will not happen anymore.
From Trump's statements, he believes that compared to these economic deals, disrupting relations between China and various Middle Eastern countries is the greatest achievement. In fact, earlier years, the US was not worried about China's presence in the Middle East until a major event occurred in 2023: China suddenly succeeded in mediating the "century reconciliation" between Saudi Arabia and Iran. When the representatives of Saudi Arabia and Iran officially signed in Beijing, the White House was in chaos. It was from that time that the US began to allocate more time from the Ukraine battlefield to deal with Middle Eastern issues.
However, Biden spent time but failed to stop China from continuously expanding its influence in the Middle East. On the other hand, Trump, upon concluding this Middle East trip, arrogantly believed he had already succeeded. After all, his visit to the Middle East was indeed more glorious than Biden's past trips. However, he overlooked two important facts:
The first fact is that Trump may not have noticed that just recently, China and Saudi Arabia signed 57 agricultural agreements, with a total value exceeding $25 billion. Clearly, Saudi Arabia deliberately signed cooperation agreements with China at this time to express to China: Saudi Arabia does not intend to take sides between China and the US. Meanwhile, since Trump took office, exchanges between China and the Middle East have not decreased in any way.
The second fact is that Middle Eastern countries have realized the lack of strength of the US military in the Middle East. Recently, the US Navy announced that they would investigate the long-term stationed "Truman" aircraft carrier in the Red Sea to explain recent frequent aircraft crashes into the sea. Recently, two carrier-based aircraft have sunk, and multiple drones have been shot down by the Houthis. For this reason, Trump has already signed a treaty with the Houthis: you don't attack me, I won't attack you. The mighty US military actually signing such treaties with the "flip-flop army" is truly unexpected. Now Israel is furious, criticizing the US military as cowardly. For the Trump administration, if the US military cannot stabilize its position in the Middle East, how can he believe he can counterbalance China in the region?
In summary, Trump's Middle East trip is just the beginning. If the Russia-Ukraine conflict really stops, the US will invest more effort in the region. As for China, having already taken steps in the Middle East, there is no reason to retreat. Therefore, the competition between China and the US in this region will increase more and more.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7505254571942412810/
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