About‍

The ChinaMed Project is a research platform promoted by the Torino World Affairs Institute, part of the TOChina Hub developed by the University of Torino. The ChinaMed Project offers a fresh analytical response to the shifting geo-economic and security landscape in the wider Mediterranean region. In particular, the primary research aim of the ChinaMed research team is to analyse the deepening interconnections between China and countries in this region, reflecting on their potential impact on regional and global dynamics.

The Mediterranean region is one of the great economic, socio-cultural, and geopolitical pivots in human history. It is both a space of unity and coherence characterised by long-term continuity, as well as a dynamic epicentre of centrifugal forces that connect Europe, Africa, and Asia. The current "arc of tension" projecting from the wider Mediterranean region is the byproduct of two mutually reinforcing phenomena: the simmering civil war within Islam, and the consequences of the financial crisis which has been engulfing the southern members of the Eurozone since 2010.

As political instability, extremism, and economic dislocation across this region reverberate globally, they intersect one of the most consequential macro-trends of this century: the transition of China, with its 1.4 billion people, from the periphery to the centre of the international system. Next to the United States, China is today the most influential global actor and is quickly becoming an eminent player in the Mediterranean region, and its footprint is changing the balance of power on the ground in a nuanced yet incremental fashion.

To capture the broadest range of Chinese interests and regional dynamics across the Mediterranean space, the geographical scope of the ChinaMed research agenda includes those countries that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs groups under the label "West Asia and North Africa", some of those that are grouped under the label “Europe", and a select few others whose relevance for Chinese economic and security interests in the region is particularly pronounced, especially in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative. Accordingly, the wider Mediterranean region as observed by the ChinaMed researchers is composed by the following countries:

Southern Europe and the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, and Slovenia.

Middle East - Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza/Palestine, and Yemen

North Africa and the Horn of Africa - Algeria, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Tunisia

ChinaMed reflects upon and actively engages with the growing relations between China and the wider Mediterranean region through a range of academic and policy-related initiatives. These include the TOChina Summer Schoool, scientific publications, academic events, and the collection and analysis of an extensive set of data from authoritative sources in Italian, Chinese, French, Turkish, Persian, Spanish, Greek, and Arabic which may be consulted in the ChinaMed Data section of this website as well as in the page of the ChinaMed Observer.