President Barack Obama's August 2014 charge that China is a free-rider in the Middle East is still providing momentum for American academia and media to question China's role in the region. It is certainly true that China should play a bigger role and contribute more to regional peace and stability as a major external power. But the reproach of the US is not only illegitimate but also hypocritical.

Despite being a market player, the argument of China's role as a free-rider or irresponsible player in the Middle East is based on several wrong pre-assumptions. The US has not always been a provider of public security goods in the region, and China has not been a beneficiary but a victim of US policy in the region as the author argued in previous articles.

And the accusation that China had not made contributions to the region is fabrication rather than truth. China actually has been a large but low-profile contributor for a long time. China is an economic power, and has contributed to the Middle East economy with its economic development. Without China's role, the economic, social and security situation in the region could have been worse in the last decade.

China's stable demand for oil has been a critical factor for Middle East oil producers' ability to maintain economic and social stability, particularly during the 2008 financial crisis, when Western markets slackened. China's investments in oil and other sectors, for instance, in Sudan, contributed a great deal to the betterment of lives in the country.

In other areas, China's contribution is also obvious, especially in poverty-stricken and insecure regions. A power plant built by Shanghai Electrics in Iraq in 2013, for instance, had been supplying approximately 70 percent of the electricity of Baghdad. They didn't retreat even when ISIS was threatening the security of Baghdad in mid-2014. Chinese Huawei also stayed even when all other companies evacuated from Libya in 2011.

China also contributed peace-keeping forces to UN mission in the region, contributed battleships patrolling the seas, and contributed battleships escorting Syrian chemical weapons to be destroyed in the Mediterranean.

China is also a major donor of humanitarian aid in the region. The latest such donation was in December 2014. China donated US $10 million for relieving Iraqi humanitarian crisis. Half of it went to the Kurdish area, which is most affected by ISIS expansion.

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