China and Iraq
I've been doing a bit of background research for a post I'm planning on China's growing presence in Iraq... I hope to have a pretty interesting post about that topic up on the blog soon.
But in the meantime, here's a little teaser that shows you just how longstanding Iraqi-Chinese relations really are.
How venerable do you guess they would be?
Try 1,250 years?
If you go to this page on the website of DC's Smithsonian Institution, you can find the catalogue and an on-line interactive display related to a late-2004 exhibit that either the Freer or the Sackler Gallery had, titled Iraq & China: Ceramics, Trade, and Innovation. (To see both of those, click on "Interactive" on the portal page... and in the "Interactive" section, click on "Resources" to get the catalogue.)
Here's what I learned from the catalogue:
- By the middle of the eighth century, Arab and Persian seafarers had successfully mastered the long ocean crossing from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. Since the Chinese were not interested in undertaking extensive oceangoing voyages at that time, Muslim merchants moved swiftly to take advantage of new opportunities for overseas trade. They acted as middlemen in selling goods, such as ivory, pearls, incense, and spices. On their return journey they supplied the Abbasid court and the affluent middle classes with prized Chinese goods: silk, paper, ink, tea, and ceramics...
By the end of the 10th century, the Abbasid caliphate was starting to disintegrate. But by then the ceramic techniques developed in Basra had spread to other points in the Muslim world, including Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain...
Back at the moment of that first contact in the eighth century, it was the Muslims who were good at (and wanted to invest in doing) the seafaring, while the Chinese were always wary about straying too far over the ocean, but had great land-based technologies.
And now, 1,250 years later? China and Iraq look poised for a new era of technological interaction in a large number of spheres. Not only oil tech, as revealed by the news of China's latest big investment in that, but many other technologies too...
Helena,
Great teaser but a long time back. Maybe, after reading it, I will better understand Edmund Burke's statement that goes something like this--sources of good things for citizens come from fountains of the great deep, or antiquity. I look forward to your post.
RichardR
With news of Iran's incraesing ties with Russia, India and China, will Bush & Obama continue to speak of the "isolation" of Iran?
Bush: I think -- the -- the -- the whole strategy is, is that, you know, at some point in time leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say this isn't worth it, and it me it's worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government.--Oct 2007
Obama website: If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation. Seeking this kind of comprehensive settlement with Iran is our best way to make progress.--Jan 2008
The isolation talk is all US- and Euro-centric, with no consideration of the rest of the world.
Speaking of isolation, and considering recent developments, we could replace "Iran" with "Russia" in the above statements, no? Diplomacy by isolation (Cuba, etc). The US will soon have a large portion of the world black-listed, and a RIF at State.
It's much older than that. The Silk Route dates from at least the first century and followed the Euphrates to Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, Baghdad, and Baquba before passing through Iran.
If you look at the overland routes for Caspian oil and natural gas, they follow they same routes.
China is the most logical market for Middle Eastern and Central Asian energy, which would be exchanged for Chinese manufactured goods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_along_the_Silk_Road
The West is an outsider looking in, trying desperately to find a role--intermediary, protector, consumer, whatever--for itself in this natural flow. The United States in particular is an outsider, as far from the action as geographically possible, which begs the question of the logic behind its dogged attempts at cutting itself into the action.