The assessment of China's developing relationships with Middle Eastern countries, and especially projections about future developments in those relationships, depend critically on assumptions about China's global strategies. Before locating how the Middle East fits into those strategies, therefore, the strategies themselves, seen here as comprising the China's Grand Strategy (although the Chinese government itself does not use that term) need to be examined and explained.

Simon Leys, writing in 1990, described the task of identifying the meaning of the political jargon used in Chinese official documents as being like “interpreting nonexistent inscriptions in invisible ink on a blank page”. Perhaps this was the case at that time, but it is not the case today. The rationales underpinning the country's global policies are articulated clearly in the speeches delivered by Chinese leaders, reports issued by government bodies, interviews conducted and statements made by senior government officials, writings by academics with close links to government policy, and commentaries in Chinese newspapers. Although there may be differences in emphasis from one such official/writer to another, and despite some developments in the way in which the strategy is projected, the main lines of the discourse have remained constant over the past four decades. Some ideas and attitudes, indeed, have roots which go back much earlier - to the initial years after the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, and in some cases to classical Chinese history.

Central to the global strategy which is projected, as documented in Section 2 of this chapter, is the insistence that China gives priority to the defence of its territories and maritime waters in pursuing relations with other countries, rejects hegemonic relations in interstate relations, and seeks to work with other states within the global order on a basis of sovereign equality and cooperation. Relationships of mutual gain are seen as critical in constructing and maintaining a peaceful and productive global order. The underlying motivations shaping Chinese global strategy are described in terms of China's bitter historical experience in the 19th and early 20th centuries.