# New Cato Analysis: “Centering Middle East Policy on China Is a Recipe for Disaster” 

Centering U.S. Middle East policy on competition with China is a recipe for disaster.

July 10, 2025 • News Releases 

Fear in Washington over China’s expanding regional presence is quickly becoming a new rationale for an expansive US foreign policy in the Middle East. [Jon Hoffman](https://www.cato.org/people/jon-hoffman), a research fellow at the Cato Institute, combats that fear in a new policy analysis titled “Aimless Rivalry.”

Hoffman argues that “Centering U.S. Middle East policy on competition with China is a recipe for disaster.” He notes that the U.S. has little to fear from China in the Middle East and that “Washington is operating on faulty assumptions that will result in counterproductive policies.”

You can read the [full analysis here](https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/aimless-rivalry).

If you’d like to speak with Hoffman, please reach out to [pr@​cato.​org](mailto:pr@cato.org).

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