China-UAE relations under US scrutiny
Relations between China and the UAE raise questions about the safety of US technology, prompting action in the US Congress.
The US Congress directed the intelligence agencies to look into the growing relationship between China and the UAE, raising questions about the diversion of US military technology to Beijing through a Washington ally.
In the 2022 Financial Intelligence Authorization Act that was included in the overall spending measure passed last week, lawmakers asked US spy agencies to assess and provide details on “China-UAE cooperation concerning defence, security, technology and other strategic matters and sensitive matters relating to the interests of National Security of the United States”.
Lawmakers directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to reconsider previous assurances that the UAE had implemented safeguards to protect US military technology.
Congress asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence whether such steps by the UAE were “viable and sufficient to protect US technology from being transferred to China or other third parties.”
Congress’s focus on China-UAE relations comes after the Wall Street Journal reported satellite images late last year showing significant construction work at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port, where China’s COSCO operates.
The report said US officials suspected the construction might be a secret military base. Senior White House officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, visited the UAE to raise the issue.
The newspaper reported that construction was suspended after US officials visited the UAE. Emirati officials told the newspaper that they had no agreement or intention to host a Chinese military base.
John Calabrese, director of the Middle East and Asia project at the Middle East Institute, said the growing strategic rivalry between the United States and China has moved to different geographic theatres and has implications for US allies.
“Technology transfer to any partner, but not necessarily to the UAE, could be another candidate,” Calabrese added, subject to further scrutiny as a result of the rivalry between the United States and China.
“The United States would be much more sensitive to the risks of intentional transfer or accidental [leakage] of technology to the Chinese,” Calabrese stated.
While US officials were raising concerns about Sino-Emirati relations, the Emiratis were also discussing the purchase of dozens of F-35 fighters, reconnaissance drones and other weapons from the United States, a potential deal valued at more than $20 billion.
In the late 1990s, the United States took advantage of the UAE and sold it a batch of F-16s that were more advanced than the US Air Force flew at the time. The deal, valued at about $7 billion in 1998, was one of the most significant arms sales.
The Trump administration has promoted the UAE to become among the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, a small but influential country sometimes referred to as “Little Sparta”.
UAE leaders have supported the ongoing Saudi-led military conflict in Yemen, which has caused a widespread humanitarian crisis.
In response, Houthi rebels based in Yemen fired missiles and launched drone strikes on the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.
However, the potential sale of the F-35 was met with bipartisan opposition in Congress. A Senate vote to block the sale of aircraft to the UAE narrowly failed in December 2020.
At the same time, the US has also been pressing the UAE and many other US allies around the world not to purchase 5G telecom equipment from China’s Huawei.
Other news reports reported that Emirati officials decided in December 2021 to abandon the US arms deal. Biden administration officials insisted they were still in talks.
Late last year, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the United States was ready to work with the UAE to address both countries’ concerns.
“The partnership between the United States and the UAE is more strategic and more complex than any single arms sale,” Kirby told reporters in December 2021. In terms of legal and policy requirements, we will always insist on a variety of end-user requirements.”
In December, a senior Emirati advisor visiting Washington said his country was concerned about getting caught up in the “new cold war” between the United States and China.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic advisor to the UAE government, said at an event hosted by the Arab Gulf States Institute: “What worries us is this thin line between strong competition and the new Cold War. Because I think we, as a small country, will be negatively affected by this, but will not have the ability in any way to affect this competition even really positively.”
In February, Guinness Defense Bulletin reported that the UAE had struck a deal with China National Air Technology Import and Export Corporation to purchase 12 state-owned L-15 jets, with options to purchase another 36.
