The United States and China are pursuing sharply different strategies in a region that is no longer best understood as the "Middle East," but as part of a broader Asian-centered geopolitical system historically described as "West Asia."

This vast region stretches from countries along the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, all the way to the Eastern Mediterranean. While the U.S. remains the undisputed military hegemon in this theater, China is steadily becoming the indispensable economic power, providing access to vast pools of capital, new technology, and expanding trade.

Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and a director at the geopolitical advisory firm McLarty Associates, joins Eric from Washington, D.C., to discuss his new book that explores how the U.S., China, and other powers are adapting to this new expanded view of the Middle East known as "West Asia."

Purchase the book: West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East by Mohammed Soliman

📌 Topics covered in this episode:

• Why the Middle East is increasingly being reframed as West Asia
• China's quiet diplomatic outreach to Israel and the Palestinians
• Surging Chinese trade and bank lending in the Gulf
• The Asianization of Gulf economies through trade, energy, and demographics
• Whether China will translate economic power into military presence
• America's role as a resident security power with 50000 troops in the region
• Why U.S. grand strategy may require doing more with less in West Asia
• The India Middle East Europe Corridor and connectivity as instruments of power
• AI compute infrastructure and the Gulf's post-oil transformation
• Israel's evolving role in regional security architecture
• How great power competition is reshaping alliances and coalitions
• Whether values or interests will define the next phase of U.S. engagement

Join the Discussion:

X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander

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When the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) was launched in 2019, a big part of its mandate from Congress was to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative. That sentiment was a key theme on Capitol Hill late last year during the DFC's Congressional reauthorization, when lawmakers from both parties made urgent appeals for the agency to do more to challenge China in the Global South.

Congress nearly tripled the DRC's budget from $60 billion to $205 billion to be used over the next five years. While that is a substantial increase, it's just a small fraction of what Chinese entities spend each year on BRI projects.

Karthik Sankaran and Dan Ford, researchers at the Quincy Institute in Washington, D.C., join Eric to discuss why they contend it's a bad idea for the DFC to compete head-on with China, rather than focus on its original mandate to build market capacity in poorer nations.

📌 Topics covered in this episode:

• The expanded mandate and six-year reauthorization of the US Development Finance Corporation
• Why countering China now drives US development finance strategy
• How the DFC compares with China's Belt and Road Initiative
• The limits of development finance as a tool of great power competition
• Critical minerals energy, and supply chains as DFC priorities
• The Lobito Corridor and overlapping US-China interests
• Why Global South countries resist choosing sides
• How the DFC could compete more effectively by focusing on development

Show Notes:

• Responsible Statecraft: US capital investments for something other than beating China by Karthik Sankaran and Dan Ford

Join the Discussion:

X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander

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YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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Follow CGSP in French and Spanish:

• French: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
• Spanish: www.chinalasamericas.com | @ChinaAmericas

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There's been a lot of discussion in recent years about the financial health of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Critics contend the BRI became overstretched, bankrupting borrowers and straining creditors suffering from a weakening Chinese economy.

Even the Chinese government sought to reframe the BRI with its "small yet beautiful" tagline to reflect a new era of purported austerity.

And while all of that was certainly true when it comes to state-backed Chinese entities that used to be at the forefront of the BRI, new data from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University reveals that Chinese private enterprises are now leading the way.

Christoph Nedopil, director of the Griffith Asia Institute, joins Eric to review the 2025 BRI data and explain what led to a record year of BRI engagement around the world.

📌 Topics covered in this episode:

• China's Belt and Road investment surge in 2025
• Why the BRI narrative of decline no longer holds
• Africa's return as a top destination for Chinese investment
• The rise of fossil fuel projects alongside green energy
• How geopolitics and US trade policy shape BRI decisions
• The growing role of Chinese private companies overseas
• What the latest BRI data signals for the years ahead

Show Notes:

• Green Finance and Development Center: China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025
• Financial Times: Beijing pours cash into Belt and Road financing in global resources grab by Edward White
• The Economist: China's Belt and Road Initiative is booming again

Join the Discussion:

X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social

Follow CGSP in French and Spanish:

• French: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
• Spanish: www.chinalasamericas.com | @ChinaAmericas

Join us on Patreon!
Become a CGSP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CGSP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth