News - World: US intelligence agencies learned this spring that China was secretly building what they suspected was a military facility at a port in the United Arab Emirates, one of the US’s closest Mideast allies, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 
Alarmed, the Biden administration warned the Emirati government that a Chinese military presence in its country could threaten ties between the two nations. After rounds of meetings and visits by U.S. officials, construction was recently halted, according to people familiar with the matter.

The article goes on to state that the intelligence findings and U.S. warnings concerned a site at a port near the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi. People familiar with the matter said it appeared the Emirati government, which hosts U.S. military forces and is seeking to buy advanced American jet fighters and drones, was unaware of the military nature of China’s activity.

The report notes the rising concern over “China’s effort to establish what U.S. officials believe would be a military foothold in the U.A.E.”

“The  Middle East increasingly appears to be a primary ground for U.S.-Chinese competition,” the report also reads.