“Hide your strength; bide your time.” For over two decades, starting in 1992, this famous quote attributed to Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s reform movement, served as a sacred verse, guiding China in shaping its Middle East policy. This phrase encapsulated China’s masterclass approach of “Strategic Ambiguity” and patience in this region. This policy remained in place until Xi Jinping came to power in 2013. Under Xi, China was transitioning from a Rule-Taker to a Rule-Maker. This time, he was determined to “tell China’s story well” in his own words. The cautious tightrope walker, careful to avoid the slightest slip in his steps on the tightrope, now wanted to delight the audience with his acrobatic moves. This evolution required a change in China’s mode of action from absolute non-involvement in the region to selective involvement, which meant appearing as a cautious, selective mediator in cases where its intervention was likely to be constructive—the time had come to move from China’s long-term hedging policy to a more assertive wedging policy. However, the region’s rapid and highly unpredictable changes since October 7, 2023, have led even Xi Jinping’s China to return to its traditional cautious approach. Is China once again shifting from a true mediator to a silent architect? Why has China’s strategy in the Middle East been in flux recently?

In the 1950s and 1960s, China sought to create anti-colonial sentiment among Middle Eastern countries and gain political support to check Soviet and Western influence in the region. In 1978, with the start of Deng Xiaoping’s economic modernization policy, China reduced the importance of its political and ideological goals in favor of financial interests and made a complete shift in the priority of its regional goals. This led to

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