China’s strategy: Has a new arbiter entered the ring?

Last month saw China staging a diplomatic coup by brokering a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia — two arch rivals in the tension-ridden Middle East, where the United States has been an uncontested arbiter of all regional dynamics. This historic breakthrough by China was followed by its former foreign minister and now State Counsellor, Wang Yi, at the Munich Security Conference last month, presenting a 12-point peace proposal for ending the Ukraine crisis. While the United States reluctantly recognised China facilitating the Saudi-Iran peace deal, it credited its regional allies Iraq and Oman for hosting several rounds of…