China as the New Frontier for Islamic Daʿwah: The Emergence of a Saudi China-Oriented Missionary Impulse

Abstract

In recent years an increasingly pronounced China-oriented missionary or daʿwah impulse has begun to appear in Saudi Arabia. In an attempt to understand this phenomenon the paper contextualizes the way it has emerged as a by-product of three major trends; first, by the gradual re-imagining of China as a new and fertile frontier for Islamic missionary work; second, through the projection of Saudi sectarian anxieties and fears onto China and Sinophone (Muslim and non-Muslim) populations; and third, via the realization of such activities through the consolidation of Sino-Saudi Salafi transnational links over the last few decades. The China-Saudi Cultural Dialogue Center, founded in 2008, is examined as a case study embodying this new missionary impulse. The paper then considers the significance of this development and its potential impact on Sino-Saudi relations in light of the Chinese party-state’s growing efforts to control the religious sphere under the Xi Jinping administration.