Abstracts

3FruitfulChina-ArabStatesSummitandaNewChapterofChina-ArabRelations

AbstractAsthe world has entered a new period of volatility and transformation, the strategic competition among great powers over shaping the future international order and leading the direction of world development would further intense. The ideas of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, proposed by China, have been recognized by an increasing number of countries, while development and cooperation have gradually emerged as a new trend of the times. Under this background, the first China-Arab States Summit has become a landmark event in the history of China-Arab Relations, which would enhance the level of China-Arab cooperation, expand the cooperation mechanisms and platforms, improve mutual strategic trust, enrich the connotation of China-Arab strategic partnership, and propel the development of their strategic partnership. It means that China-Arab relations would become further closer, based on the proposal of establishing a China-Arab future-oriented strategic partnership of comprehensive cooperation and common development in the 8th Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. The first China-Arab summit defined four aspects and eight major cooperation initiatives as the multi-pillars of co-building a China-Arab community with a shared future. Among them, practical cooperation in inter-civilizational dialogue brings new opportunities for promoting cultural exchanges and people-to-people connectivity, which is beneficial for China and Arab states to work together to promote harmonious coexistence among world civilizations.

KeyWordsChina-ArabStates Summit; China-Arab Cooperation; the Belt and Road Initiative; Strategic Partnership; China-Arab Community with a Common Destiny; China-Arab Cultural Exchanges

AuthorsLIWeijian, Ph.D.,Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Foreign Policy Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies; TANG Zhichao, Ph.D.,Professor, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Director of Middle East Development and Governance Research Center, Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; DING Jun, Ph.D.,Professor, Middle East Studies Institute, Shanghai International Studies University; WANG Guangda, Ph.D.,Professor, Shanghai International Studies University.

25AMultidimensionalPerspectiveonChina-ArabEconomicandTradeCooperationDevelopmentSincethe21Century

AbstractDuring2001-2021, China’s economic and trade cooperation with Arab countries has achieved a leapfrog development, with rapid growth in goods amounted and a stable trade structure. Key markets such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to play a leading role. Energy ties have always been the main axis of Sino-Arab economic and trade development. China’s upcoming energy consumption peak may weaken the growth thrust of Sino-Arab economic and trade, but the energy ties based on huge oil and gas imports will continue to be a driving force for Sino-Arab economic and trade. China holds a huge deficit with most oil-producing countries except the UAE, Libya and Algeria and a huge surplus with all non-oil-producing countries. Behind the overall balance and individual imbalance is the shorter industrial chain and lower added value of Chinese trade products. Infrastructure construction and mutual direct investment are the two wings of the “1+2+3” cooperation pattern of China-Arab economic and trade. The former has been developing relatively fast, while the latter has been hovering at a low level. Their future development direction is to promote the construction of industrial parks in Arab countries to strengthen China-Arab cooperation in high-tech fields and establish the energy community of destiny.

KeyWordsChina-ArabEconomic and Trade; “1+2+3” Cooperation Pattern; Energy Ties; Infrastructure Construction; Mutual Direct Investment

AuthorsWANGMeng, Ph.D.,Professor, Institute of Middle East Studies, Northwestern University; WANG Bochao, postgraduate, Institute of Middle East Studies, Northwestern University.

50ColonialismandEgyptianPolitics,1882-1952:ACommentontheTheoryof“CivilizingMission”

AbstractColonialismand Egyptian politics, or colonialism and Egyptian modernization in general, are important topics in academic circle.. Imperial or colonial historiography believes that the East is an uncivilized land of “barbarism” and “ignorance”, thus colonialism cultivates barbaric or semi barbaric people and practices the “civilizing mission”. The Modernization school pointed out that colonialism promoted the start of the modernization process of Asian, African and Latin American countries such as Egypt. The mainstream scholars from Egypt, China and other Asian, African and Latin American countries truthfully wrote about the ferocity of colonial aggression, the brutality of colonial rule and the heaviness of colonial exploitation, eulogized the Egyptian people’s epic anti-colonial struggle and the successive national independence movements, while recognizing that colonialism had promoted modernization to a certain extent. In recent years, the postcolonial historiography rises in the West, with a fragmented historical or new economic and social history narrative style, exaggerates parts and details, evades major issues, and recovers the theory of “civilizing mission” in a roundabout way, which has a great potential to make a comeback in colonial historiography. However, the hypocrisy of the withdrawal narratives and the cruelty of the political oppression that repeatedly emerged during the 70 years of British colonial rule over Egypt, the “three revolutions” of the Egyptian people against colonialism triggered by it, and the continuous political turmoil and crisis in Egypt from 1923 to 1952, fully prove that various forms of “civilizing mission” theory is a false narrative without historical evidence.

KeyWordsColonialism;Egyptian Politics; Civilizing Mission; Withdrawal Lies; “Three Revolutions”

AuthorBIJiankang, Ph.D.,Research Fellow, Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

70Egypt’sClimateChangeCopingStrategyandItsDilemma

AbstractUnderthe background of climate warming, in recent years, Egypt’s average temperature remains high, sea level keeps rising, the Nile Delta is under serious threat. Egypt’s drought degree exacerbated, water shortage aggravated, prevalence of multiple diseases is increasing and endangering public health. To cope with climate change, the government of Egypt established environmental departments and climate institutions, formulated corresponding climate policies, implemented relevant laws and regulations. Egyptian NGOs and all sectors of society had made some efforts. In addition, Egypt strengthened climate cooperation with international organizations and countries around the world continuously. Egypt has made some achievements in coping with climate change, but the effect of climate governance is very limited. The difficulties faced by Egypt in coping with climate change include the long-term marginalization of climate issues in government decision-making, insufficient financial support, slow climate legislation, large population, the national awareness of environmental protection is generally weak and the unfairness of global climate governance has had a negative impact on climate governance in Egypt, etc. In the long run, Egypt will face severe challenges in the field of climate change due to various conditions.

KeyWordsEgypt;Climate Change; Environmental Issues; Social Governance

AuthorsKONGYan, Ph.D.,Associate Professor, History of School, Zhengzhou University; GUO Qingkun, Master candidate, History of School, Zhengzhou University.

95Nasser’sPeaceandIsrael’sChoice,1953-1956

AbstractTheearly Egyptian-Israeli peace attempts began with the Pawelke mediation in 1953, passed through the Egyptian-Israeli easing in 1953-1955, and ended in the 1956 Middle East War. Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett once responded to the peace initiative, and many forces such as the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations Quakers also joined the mediation one after another. Therefore, this peace attempt was endowed with internal and external benefits. However, due to the obstruction of radicals in Israel and the fleeting of international opportunities, the Egypt-Israel peace talks ended without any effects. Ben-Gurion chose the path of pursuing “strong” rather than “recognition” for Israel, and defeated Sharett in the struggle for policy dominance, thus ending the Egyptian-Israeli peace attempt. Israel’s choice shows that a hegemonic order does not inevitably lead to stability and peace, and the special interests of the middle class spawned by its hierarchical structure often encourage some countries to implement strategic opportunism “backed by hegemony”. Therefore, it is difficult to suggest that the liberal hegemonic order is the “primary stage of the constitutional order”.

KeyWordsEgypt-IsraelPeace; Gamal Abdel Nasser; Moshe Sharett; David Ben-Gurion

AuthorsQIANLei, Ph. D.,Lecturer, Zhejiang Normal University; Munir Zyada, Research Assistant, Al-Azhar University, and Ph.D.candidate, Zagazig University, Egypt.

120TheGrandEthiopianRenaissanceDamDispute:FromthePerspectiveofTwo-LevelGameTheory

AbstractInEast Africa, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has sparked a long-running geopolitical dispute between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, which has been locked in negotiations for a decade. In order to maintain the dominant position of the Nile, Egypt resolutely defended the historical water rights; Ethiopia has insisted on the absolute right to exploit and utilize its water resources, in order to explore the road to national rejuvenation. On the other hand, Sudan has changed positions for its pursuit of maximization. In addition, the three countries also face different internal game situations. Taking the Two-Level Game theory as the analysis framework and the GERD dispute as the research object, this paper makes an in-depth analysis of the international and domestic game patterns for the three countries, and tries to propose a solution mechanism for the ‘de-gamification’ of Nile water resources. Firstly, the three countries in dispute need to form a unified position at the domestic level, so as to obtain a greater bargaining advantage in international negotiations. Secondly, the three countries need to cooperate to expand the overlapping scope of the international negotiations, thus to promote the negotiations to reach a tripartite agreement and avoid the conflict of Nile water resources.

KeyWordsTwo-LevelGame Theory; Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Dispute; Ethiopia; Egypt; Sudan

AuthorSUChuting, Ph. D.,Lecturer, Arabic Department, School of Foreign Language, Nankai University.

139TheProcess,AchievementsandProblemsoftheConstructionofDesertNewTownsintheGreaterCairoRegion

AbstractInthe context of the global urbanization, constructing new towns is a common scheme adopted by various governments to solve the problem of overcrowding in central urban areas. Being regarded as the central pillar of the national urban development strategy, the Greater Cairo Region has become an experimental area for constructing desert new towns in Egypt due to its unique location advantages since the 1970s. So far, it has been found that the construction achieved some positive results in promoting national affordable housing, industrialization, private sector investment, and regional integration of the urban corridors in the northern delta region, and played an additional political role. However, it is far from achieving the expected goals in population redistribution and arable land protection. The low population inflow rate and high housing vacancy rate in the new towns highlighted the resource waste and class segregation, and the construction process also encouraged the desert land and real estate speculation, due to the excessive pursuit of profits by capital under the alliance of traditional political model and economic liberalization.

KeyWordsTheGreater Cairo Region; Desert New Towns; Egypt; Urbanization

AuthorsYUANMinghui, Ph.D.candidate, School of Foreign Studies, University of International Business and Economics; YU Yuping, Ph.D.,Professor, School of Foreign Studies, University of International Business and Economics.