So much of the international news coverage of Xi Jinping's three-day visit last week to Saudi Arabia was framed in the context of the broader U.S.-China rivalry. The Saudis and other Arab states, according to the prevailing narrative, were pivoting away from their decades-long relationship with the U.S. to embrace China.

But suggesting that some kind of grand geopolitical realignment is taking place in the Middle East is just wrong says Jonathan Fulton, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and one of the world's foremost scholars on China-Mideast relations.

Jonathan joins Eric & Cobus from Abu Dhabi to explain why journalists should have instead focused more attention on the strategic interests of individual Arab countries.

Show Notes:

The Routledge Handbook on China–Middle East Relations by Jonathan Fulton: https://bit.ly/3URm5QU
The China-MENA Podcast: https://bit.ly/3Fm3NBv

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Bad Takes: What the News Media Got Wrong About Xi's Trip to Saudi Arabia 49:46 Share

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Bad Takes: What the News Media Got Wrong About Xi's Trip to Saudi Arabia