China's Mediterranean Move an Opening for NATO

China's recent entry into Mediterranean security requires a readjustment of sensitive regional balances as well as the need for defense planners in the U.S. European, Central, and African Commands to incorporate China into their strategic calculus. China's increasing economic and maritime footprint, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, could benefit cooperation on non-traditional security challenges such as counterterrorism, anti-piracy, crisis management, and arresting weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Maritime security is another issue for cooperation given China's interest in Israeli and Cypriot gas, as well as counterterrorism against al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which attacked Chinese interests in Algeria in 2009. In Syria, China has concerns about Uyghur jihadists linked with al Qaeda.