On December 31, 2013, as we prepared to welcome the New Year, a Chinese naval vessel was leaving the Saudi port of Jeddah to escort Syrian chemical weapons en route to be destroyed in the Mediterranean. This example demonstrates that China is a supplier of security public goods in the Middle East, and that China is willing to contribute more to Middle East security.

Photo taken on Jan. 4, 2014 shows the frigate Yancheng at the Cypriot port of Limassol. Chinese navy frigate Yancheng arrived in the Cypriot port of Limassol on Saturday at the start of its mission to provide security support to the operation for removing Syria's chemical weapons. [Photo/Xinhua]

But for some years, U.S. scholars and journalists have criticized China for "free-riding" and "over-consuming" security public goods provided by the United States. The media attacks reached a new peak when statistics provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicated that in September 2013 China had overtaken the United States to become the world's leading importer of crude oil.

An article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 10, 2013 entitled "Middle East Oil Fuels Fresh China-U.S. Tensions" argued that "for years, China and other oil-consuming nations have benefited as Washington spent billions of dollars a year to police chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and other volatile parts of the Middle East to ensure oil flowed around the globe".

These arguments, although enthusiastically supported in the U.S. media and academia, are entirely groundless. Far from being a security provider, the United States has, in many ways, undermined peace and stability in the region. China, far from being a beneficiary, has been a victim of the irresponsible behavior of the United States in the region. The oil price has risen from around 2o dollars a barrel to roughly 100 dollars a barrel since China's oil imports began to accelerate rapidly.

It is also quite wrong to say China does not provide security goods. On the contrary, China has contributed a great deal towards safeguarding security in the region. China has contributed approximately two thousand peacekeeping troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) since 2006, and has also contributed a large proportion of the peacekeeping troops in Sudan and South Sudan over the last ten years.

China's anti-piracy actions off the coast of Somalia are another major contribution. Since December 26, 2008, China has dispatched 16 Task Forces to the Gulf of Aden, each of them composed of no less than three warships. According to reports, up to 22 December, 2013, the Chinese Task Forces had escorted 5,460 ships, including 2,765 foreign ships. They have also escorted seven ships of the World Food Program in cooperation with the European Union Combined Task Force 465 (EU CTF- 465).

China's latest efforts, helping the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) destroy Syria's chemical weapons, are yet another contribution to Middle East regional security. The warship already at sea will provide an escort for vessels carrying chemical weapons from Latakia to a location in the Mediterranean, where they will be destroyed as part of the global program to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. Though it is a new mission in a new place, it is believed that the Chinese navy, together with those of other countries, will cooperate well and finish the job together.