邹志强、孙德刚: The US-China Strategic Competition in the GCC Countries: A Case of ‘New Infrastructure Statecraft’, Middle East Critique, December 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2025.2602096. (SSCI/Q1）
Abstract
Within the context of intensifying US-China strategic rivalries, ‘New Infrastructure’ (NI)- a fusion of traditional physical systems with advanced technologies has emerged as a centerpiece for competition. The US has systematically constrained China’s global NI outreach through a dual strategy of coercive diplomacy and tech-economic containment, which have aggravated political risks for China’s NI collaboration globally. The Gulf region, which has become an epicenter of NI competition, faces acute dilemmas as GCC states navigate competing interests from Washington and Beijing. The study introduces the concept of ‘NI statecraft’ to probe the US-China competition in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and compares the multidimensional differences and explores approaches to insulate NI projects from great power rivalries. The research finds that the US employs a security-first strategy, based on the geopolitical logic to recalibrate its NI programs, consolidating power competition and keeping its monopoly and primacy, a trajectory of ‘economic means for political ends’. China leverages economic statecraft and market-driven integration, based on developmental logic to carry out its NI statecraft, a model of ‘political means for economic ends’. The GCC countries have mixed responses towards the US-China NI rivalry: bandwagoning, hedging, or deviating to harvest geoeconomic interests while shelve geopolitical entanglements.
