How Iran-US tensions could benefit a new Mideast player: China

The main cast in the intensifying conflict in the Middle East is complex enough: the United States and Iran; Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni monarchies across the Gulf; Israel and its Iran-influenced neighbor, Lebanon; and, with increasing clout after its military intervention in Syria, Russia.

But a less overtly involved outside power may be most worth watching: China, with its own growing Middle East economic, diplomatic, and strategic interests. The Chinese are no more immune than anyone else from the immediate effects of the escalation between the U.S. and

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