The End of the American Century Begins in the Middle East

Chinese official communications often echo a phrase of President Xi Jinping’s about “great changes unseen in a century.” Increasingly that line seems less like propaganda and more like a simple statement of a vast transformation in the world order. This overhaul, years in the making, is taking the clearest shape right now in the Middle East, a region where the U.S. has devoted many resources in the 21st century. In March, China helped arrange a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, taking the kind of broker role in the region long held by the U.S. Washington currently has no…