The cooperation between China and the Gulf Arab countries can be regarded as an action to change the world pattern, but at the same time, a senior official in the White House said that China is about to compromise with the United States. Such remarks are either not awake or overconfidence in the strength of the United States.
The world pattern is changing rapidly, and many historic upheavals have occurred quietly. This round of dialogue between China and the Gulf Arab countries is likely to be a typical example. On December 8 local time, the Chinese leader held talks with King Salman and the head of government at the Saudi Palace. China and Saudi Arabia immediately signed the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the two countries and reached an agreement on a series of subsequent economic cooperation projects. It is expected that the scale of economic cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia will continue to expand in the future, and the two sides will continue to promote cooperation in oil and gas development, new energy cooperation, and RMB settlement of crude oil. Considering the huge impact of these cooperations on the future of the world, the agreement reached by Chinese leaders and Saudi leaders is a phased milestone in cooperation between China and the Gulf Arab countries.
As the world's major energy exporters and major energy importers, it is a general trend to promote cooperation between China and the Gulf Arab countries. Through this meeting, the two sides naturally reached a series of new cooperation. According to information disclosed by Saudi media, the two sides signed 34 investment agreements, covering industries such as green energy, information technology, cloud services, transportation, and construction. Although the specific figures are unknown, the scale of the preliminary agreement may reach US$30 billion. However, compared with the progress of the investment agreement directly reached by the two sides in this round, what is more noteworthy is probably the progress of the two sides in the crude oil settlement mechanism. As the largest energy exporter, if Saudi Arabia can reach a RMB crude oil settlement agreement with China, it will fundamentally shake the US dollar payment system, which is the main global settlement system.
At this meeting, although China and Saudi Arabia did not directly reach an agreement on RMB crude oil settlement, the deepening economic ties between the two sides paved the way for the subsequent adoption of RMB settlement. It is particularly worth noting that Saudi Arabia has taken a new step in RMB trade settlement. Previously, a Chinese company in Yiwu received a cross-border RMB loan from Saudi Arabian customers through the cross-border payment system. This is the first time that Saudi Arabia and Yiwu, China have reached a cross-border RMB payment business. Since Saudi Arabia can trade with its suppliers in Yiwu using RMB as settlement currency, naturally, oil can also become a goods settled by RMB. In the future, both sides use RMB as trading currency to settle crude oil, and now it seems that there are almost no technical difficulties. The biggest question is probably when Saudi Arabia will withstand the pressure from the United States and make the final decision to put aside the US dollar.
On the issue of oil settlement currency, any settlement transaction in non-US dollar currencies will attract the attention of world observers. The reason is simple. As the world's major energy commodity, oil has long been anchored to the US dollar. After the "Nickson Shock" ended the binding between the US dollar and gold, crude oil has almost become another iconic binding product of the US dollar. If there are currencies from other countries outside the US dollar, it will be the most powerful impact on the US dollar since 1971. As the world's second largest economy, China has strong economic potential in the future, and the internationalization of RMB is also China's strategic goal. If China can promote representatives of oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia to accept RMB settlement crude oil, it is equivalent to conveying a key message to countries around the world, that is, the RMB can become a global settlement currency, because the RMB can already be used to trade hard currency such as oil! It is conceivable that once the settlement of RMB crude oil between China and Saudi Arabia is determined, it will have a fundamental impact on the order of world financial operations, and this day does not seem to be too far away.
It is worth mentioning that when China and Saudi Arabia held a meeting that influenced the world, senior American officials made arrogant words. According to US media reports, on December 8, White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said that he believes China hopes to maintain stable relations with the United States in the short term because China faces domestic economic challenges and the challenges of the new crown epidemic. It seems that this American "Indo-Pacific Tsar" still lacks sufficient understanding of China. Although the Chinese economy is facing certain pressure, it is generally the case in all countries around the world. If Campbell looked at his own situation in the United States, he might not think that economic problems only put pressure on China. What's more, China has passed the most difficult period, the most severe moment of the epidemic has passed, China is taking scientific prevention and control of the weaker Omickron variant, and China's economy is attracting major benefits of the epidemic gradually passing. What's more, China never gives in to core issues such as national sovereignty. The so-called China's initiative to compromise with the United States is really unfounded. I wonder if Campbell, the "Indo-Pacific Tsar", did not wake up or was too confident in his name as "tsar".
