'One belt, one road' and the Middle East in China : Yemeni community in a transregional circuit.

Through the case-study of emerging Yemeni diasporic community in China, this paper explores the China-Middle East relationship by seeking a full transregional circuit of everyday life and relationship between ‘China in the Middle East’ and ‘the Middle East in China’ from the age of Cold War till China’s global initiative of ‘One Belt, One Road’. Based on a multi-sited ethnography conducted in Yemen and China, on the one hand, explains the strong China’s humanitarian reliefs, infrastructure and other aid projects have laid good foundation of the ongoing Chinese presence in Yemen. On the other hand, this paper explores pulling factors that explains growing Yemenis presence in China. By doing so, the presence and the growing public visibility of the ‘Arab world in China’ as well as ‘China in the Arab world’ will be underlined, so that a full circuit and asymmetrical relationship of the new Silk Road network can be better understood in future