By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-06-30

ADEN -- Beijing is the primary beneficiary of Red Sea tensions as Chinese shipping companies operate with near-total immunity from the ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, analysts in Yemen said.

"Overall, the Houthi campaign has been good for Chinese shipping lines," Politico reported June 12.

As major shipping companies reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, China and Russia have been cashing in on their special relationship with the terrorist group, which in mid-January promised their ships safe passage.

Even though Chinese vessels transiting the Red Sea have been hit by Houthi missiles on two separate occasions, in March and May, the Houthis' selective targeting has allowed Chinese ships to navigate the Red Sea with fewer interruptions compared to other nations' vessels.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition protecting international navigation in the Red Sea continues to degrade the Houthis' capabilities.

New companies enter Red Sea

Since the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb started, the number of Chinese ships transiting through the region has increased, economist Abdul Aziz Thabet told Al-Fassel.

The Sea Legend shipping company announced on its website that its vessels "fly China's flag prominently and sail through the Red Sea danger zone escorted by the Chinese navy," according to the Financial Times.

Prior to the Houthi attacks, which started in November, Sea Legend was not known to operate cargo ships in the Red Sea. But since January, the company has launched a service using seven vessels to link Turkish ports with China via the Red Sea, it said.

"The company serves the ports of Aden in Yemen, Doraleh in Djibouti, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Aqaba in Jordan and Sokhna in Egypt," it said.

Other small Chinese shipping companies have also rerouted their vessels to serve the Red Sea, including Fujian Huahui Shipping, Transfar and China United Lines, Thabet said.

These companies began sailing their cargo vessels through the Red Sea in December.

Attacks serve Iran, China

"China will have the lion's share of these [shipping] operations, and this is further evidence that what the Houthi militia is doing in Bab al-Mandeb has nothing to do with Gaza," analyst Fares al-Beel said.

"The Houthis' Red Sea attacks are, plain and simple, part of a struggle for influence in the region, and thus serve both Iran and China," which signed a 25-year cooperation deal in 2021, he said.

It is in China's interest to "embroil the United States in wars here and there" to distract it from putting pressure on Beijing in the South China Sea, Yemeni Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi told Al-Fassel.

China hopes to benefit politically from insecurity in the Red Sea, he said.