![]() Instead, Sullivan suggested an approach relying more on “aggressive diplomacy to produce more sustainable results.” If this is what the Biden administration had envisaged for Afghanistan post-withdrawal, the approach failed at first contact. America’s engagement with the region is typically framed squarely in military or counterterrorism terms and as a binary all-in or all-out choice. Writing in Foreign Affairs last year, Jake Sullivan, now Biden’s national security adviser, outlined what he described as “America’s opportunity in the Middle East,” arguing that diplomacy could succeed where America’s past military interventions have failed. What surveillance technology is China already selling to autocracies in the region, America’s friends among them, as it has in Iran? Who are the next candidates for a China-style social-credit system? Are some sections of the population in the Middle East the next Uyghurs? Until, that is, sitting in Beirut, one begins to ask how these apparent investments sit alongside stories about Uyghur internment camps in China’s Xinjiang province and the sophisticated surveillance system the Muslim minority group lives under, or why countries that purport to defend the interests of Muslims-Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates-have remained silent about China’s treatment of those Muslims.Ĭhina’s growing presence in the Middle East then takes on an ominous immediacy. Yet these discussions remain somewhat superficial-a debate about geopolitics divorced from daily life. Headlines about China signing a multibillion-dollar investment-and-trade deal with Iran, or courting Saudi Arabia to maintain access to oil, prompt questions in the Middle East about whether working more with China could benefit the region, and what that would mean for American influence. This has become even more urgent and difficult in the aftermath of the damaging images of the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the doubts the debacle has cast over the Biden administration’s commitment to values and international engagement. ![]() Biden should consider how his foreign-policy priorities-China and democracy-connect in the Middle East, and why pulling too far away from the region could undermine his work on the international stage. In the Middle East, whether it be over China’s infrastructure spending via the Belt and Road Initiative, its thirst for oil, or its cozying up to autocracies and foes of America, the battle between Washington and Beijing is fast playing out. He has talked much less about the Middle East in that time, and although he has never phrased it in so many words, Biden appears to be trying to deprioritize a region that he believes has consumed too much of America’s attention and resources.īut the competition between the United States and China does not exist in a vacuum, nor is it fenced off within Asia it is global. To fight off Beijing and other autocracies, he has said, democracies must uphold their values. With a small team, TechNode provides timely news and thoughtfully researched articles for worldwide readers interested in learning more about the Chinese tech industry.S ince taking office, President Joe Biden has talked repeatedly about competition with China. Teambition’s previous investors include Gobi Partners, IDG, Northern Light Venture Capital and Vangoo Capital Partners. Lat week they also invested in fitness app KEEP, which has synergies with Tencent’s own WeChat-enabled fitness tracking services. Tencent has been aggressively investing in startups that could potentially be integrated into the WeChat ecosystem, including productivity, entertainment and payments services. “Since China doesn’t have those products, we decided poise ourselves as a one-stop-shop for providing all of them,” said Mr. He also pitched the company as a local replacement for several western a SaaS services including Trello and Dropbox. Shanghai-based Teambition sealed an undisclosed amount of funding from the tech giant as part of a B+ funding round, following a 12 million USD series B in September last year.īoth companies have remained tight-lipped on the investment, though in an interview with Technode in May last year Teambition CEO Junyuan Qi said the company had already begun working with paying customers abroad in Australia and Japan. Tencent made a huge bet on the enterprise market with the launch of WeChat enterprise this year, hoping to tap the large number of businesses already using the hugely-popular message platform for work.Īccording to the company’s latest earnings report, WeChat enterprise has over 20 million registered users, and they’re now doubling down on productivity tools with a new investment in workflow startup, Teambition.
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