Why is aspiring naval power China focusing on Central Asia and Middle East?

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All this recent diplomacy has perhaps made Beijing feel strategically overextended. A shift from the seas back to the land would echo the Ming’s landward shift five centuries ago. China’s ongoing transition to becoming a sea power is in no way certain, in particular if Beijing’s very real continental security challenges were to outweigh its potential benefits from the sea.

Dr Bruce Elleman’s forthcoming book, “The US Navy and the South China Sea: American, Chinese and Vietnamese Maritime Relations, 1945-2023”, examines China’s expansion in the South China Sea. The opinions expressed in this article are strictly the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US government, US Navy or the US Naval War College