King Abdullah II began a state visit to the People’s Republic of China on Monday, in a move that carries political and economic significance beyond the formal framework of a royal visit. The visit comes as Jordan seeks to take its relationship with Beijing into a new phase, with greater emphasis on investment, production, technology and trade, alongside discussions on political and development issues of mutual interest.

The visit comes as Jordanian-Chinese relations continue to develop following the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1977. Next year will mark 50 years since the two countries established relations. In 2015, the two countries elevated their ties to a strategic partnership.

While Jordanian officials see the visit as an opportunity to deepen cooperation with the world’s second-largest economy, Jordanian politicians, economists, business leaders and commentators have focused on a more specific question: What does Jordan actually want from China at this stage?

The answers offered by several Jordanian figures converge around one central point. The relationship does not simply need more agreements. It needs projects that are actually implemented, investments that generate production, factories that create jobs, Jordanian exports entering the Chinese market, and genuine transfers of technology and expertise.

Amer Al-Shobaki: Jordan Should Import Chinese Factories, Not Just Chinese Goods

Energy researcher Amer Al-Shobaki sees the King’s visit to China as taking place at a particularly sensitive international moment, as economic and strategic divisions between the United States and China continue to deepen. He believes Jordan can turn its international position and relationships into an economic opportunity rather than being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing.

Al-Shobaki says one of the smartest spaces for Jordanian policy today is "trying to make Jordan a place where the economic interests of the two powers can meet, in a way that serves Jordanian interests first."

In his view, the Beijing visit is part of a broader economic diplomacy led by the King, aimed at converting Jordan’s accumulated political and strategic capital into investment, factories, infrastructure, exports and jobs.

Al-Shobaki says the elements of Jordan’s equation are clear: the Kingdom has its geographical location, resources, human capital, stability and network of trade agreements, while China has enormous industrial and technological capabilities and a global reach.

He believes the significance of Jordan’s move toward China is reinforced by the Kingdom’s continued strategic trade relationship with the United States. Jordan, he argues, "does not have the luxury of choosing economically between Washington and Beijing, nor does it have any interest in doing so." Instead, it should benefit from its relationship with the United States while also taking advantage of Chinese industrial, investment and technological capabilities.

But Al-Shobaki places a fundamental condition on this equation: Jordan should not become merely a market for Chinese goods.

"The bet is not on increasing the volume of trade with China as much as changing its nature: from importing products to attracting the capacity to produce them," he says.

For him, the ideal scenario would involve Chinese companies establishing factories in Jordan, employing Jordanians, using local resources such as phosphate, potash and silica, developing related downstream industries, and investing in energy, storage, transport, logistics and technology.

The objective, he argues, is for Jordan to move "from being a market for Chinese products to becoming a partner in producing them."

Al-Shobaki also warns against reducing the relationship to the idea of turning Jordan into merely a trading platform. He argues that the most sustainable opportunity lies in Chinese production carrying genuine Jordanian added value through local workers, Jordanian suppliers, technology and knowledge transfer, the use of local resources, and compliance with rules of origin.

He points to a number of sectors that could provide the foundation for such cooperation, ranging from industries linked to phosphate and potash to energy, transport, storage, logistics and technology.

Al-Shobaki also points to the Aqaba port railway project, with investment of around $2.3 billion, which would connect phosphate and potash production areas to Aqaba through a network of roughly 360 kilometers. He sees projects of this kind as part of a broader effort to present Jordan to China as an integrated investment proposition.

He does not separate Chinese investment from Jordan’s domestic economic situation. Jordan’s expected economic growth in 2026 is around 2.7%, while unemployment among Jordanians remains above 21%, making productive investment more important than simply increasing trade flows.

A factory, he argues, does not only create direct employment. It also generates demand for suppliers, transport, services and trade. Large investment projects can increase exports, generate new revenues and strengthen the state’s fiscal position.

For Al-Shobaki, the success of the visit should not be measured by the number of agreements announced, but by what appears on the ground afterward.

He identifies several indicators: how many factories are established, how much investment begins, how many Jordanians are employed, how much technology and expertise are transferred to Jordan, how much can be saved on imports and how much additional export revenue can be generated.

He summarizes his assessment by saying that the key objective is for Jordan to be "a friend of Washington and a partner of Beijing," turning the King’s international standing and Jordan’s relationships into economic strength that citizens can feel through jobs, income and future opportunities.

Mohammad Abu Hammour: Agreements Are Not Enough, What Matters Is What Happens on the Ground

Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammad Abu Hammour places the implementation of agreements and memoranda of understanding at the top of the priorities that should accompany the King’s visit to China.

Abu Hammour says the visit, as a "state visit," represents an important stage in Jordanian-Chinese relations, which began in 1977. He notes that next year will mark 50 years since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries.

He considers China an important partner for Jordan, not only because of the size of its economy but also because of its industrial, technological and investment capabilities.

He calls for expanding cooperation in trade, investment, industry, technology and technology transfer. At the same time, he highlights a fundamental problem in the current economic relationship: the major imbalance in bilateral trade.

According to Abu Hammour, Jordan’s imports from China are around 15 times larger than its exports to China. Increasing Jordanian exports to the Chinese market should therefore be a central objective.

He believes Jordan has products and sectors capable of finding a place in the Chinese market, particularly food industries, pharmaceuticals and chemical industries, as well as other technological and industrial sectors.

But the objective, in his view, should not be to export everything to China. Instead, Jordan should identify products that the Chinese market needs and that Jordan can produce competitively.

On investment, Abu Hammour sees significant opportunities for Chinese companies in Jordan, particularly in water, energy, railways, transport and infrastructure.

Attracting Chinese investment requires an attractive and streamlined investment environment, he says. But the investment Jordan needs should be productive and capable of creating jobs and employing Jordanians, rather than simply generating financial flows or projects with limited impact on the local economy.

Abu Hammour also focuses on previous memoranda of understanding and agreements.

He notes that Jordan previously signed memoranda with China involving investments worth around $7 billion, in addition to billions of dollars in memoranda and agreements with other countries.

But the existence of these figures does not mean that the Jordanian economy has actually benefited from their full value.

That is why Abu Hammour calls for an assessment of what has been achieved under these memoranda and for close monitoring of their implementation. He puts the issue clearly: "The memoranda are important, but what matters more is achievement on the ground."

He does not place responsibility for follow-up solely on the government. He also sees an important role for the private sector, chambers of commerce and industry, and business leaders in turning political understandings into viable projects.

Abu Hammour argues that Jordan has several advantages that can help attract Chinese investment, particularly its openness to global markets and its trade agreements and partnerships with the United States, the European Union and Arab countries.

On the political dimension of economic relations, Abu Hammour cautions against treating relations with China, the United States and the European Union as mutually exclusive choices.

He stresses the importance of maintaining balance and avoiding framing economic relations with China as being in competition with relations with the United States, the European Union or Japan.

"Every country pursues its own interests," he says, adding that Jordan must manage its economic relationships in a way that serves its national interests and allows it to benefit from opportunities with different partners.

For Abu Hammour, the priority should be increasing productive investment, raising Jordanian exports and expanding trade, while maintaining strong economic and political relations with different international partners.

Fahd Al-Khitan: Jordan Is Not Starting Its Relationship with China From Scratch

Political commentator Fahd Al-Khitan sees the King’s visit to Beijing as an extension of a relationship that King Abdullah II gave priority to early in his reign.

Al-Khitan notes that Jordanian-Chinese relations have followed an upward trajectory since then, culminating in the signing of a strategic partnership agreement in 2015.

He views China’s economic experience from a different perspective, arguing that its rise can offer lessons for Jordan, particularly because the Kingdom is a small country with limited natural resources.

Al-Khitan describes China’s economic rise as an important experience for a country such as Jordan, which is seeking an economic and development model capable of raising growth rates and keeping pace with technological change. China, he argues, is one of the countries that created such a model and has become increasingly capable of sharing its experience and partnerships abroad.

He notes that China has become an important trading partner for Jordan over the past several years, ranking first in Jordan’s trade last year, while Chinese companies have developed a strong presence in industrial and commercial sectors and major projects.

However, Al-Khitan does not overlook the political circumstances that affected the relationship in recent years, particularly the growing rivalry between the United States and China.

He says those circumstances affected Beijing’s relations with several countries in the region, including Jordan. Economic and investment projects also became the subject of disputes, most notably the controversy surrounding the Attarat oil shale power project, financed by Chinese banks, which ultimately went to arbitration before the project entered operation.

Al-Khitan argues that Jordan did not abandon its political and diplomatic relationship with China during that period. Instead, it maintained open channels of communication, particularly on issues related to regional security and the Palestinian cause.

He sees Beijing as an increasingly important partner for the Arab world on these issues, giving Jordanian-Chinese relations a dimension that goes beyond trade and investment.

Al-Khitan places the King’s visit within the broader global changes of recent years, which have pushed many countries to reassess their relationships and diversify their economic and political options.

He believes Jordan is once again relying on one of the characteristics long associated with its foreign policy: maintaining active and friendly relations with different international actors in a way that serves Jordan’s national interests.

The visit to Beijing, he says, "does not represent a shift in historical alliances, as some may interpret it." Instead, it represents the activation of a deeply rooted relationship with a major global partner.

According to Al-Khitan, the visit will not start the relationship from scratch. The partnership already exists across several sectors. The objective at this stage is to build on what is already in place, expand economic and investment cooperation and restore momentum in new areas.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh: Jordan Is Facing a New Phase, and China Is a Partner That Cannot Be Ignored

Businessman Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh views the King’s visit to China as an important step at an important moment, amid major changes in the global economy.

"China is changing, and the world is changing with it. It is in Jordan’s interest to be present as this new phase takes shape," Abu-Ghazaleh says.

He believes the timing of the visit reflects the King’s understanding of the emerging international environment. The relationship with China, he argues, is no longer simply another item on Jordan’s list of foreign relationships. It is a relationship with a country that "has become a fundamental part of the international economy and politics."

Abu-Ghazaleh sees Jordanian foreign policy as being based not on building one relationship at the expense of another, but on expanding the country’s network of relations while preserving its room for maneuver.

The King’s visit, he says, reflects Jordan’s desire to remain present in a changing world, expand its options and build new bridges toward the East while maintaining its existing relationships with the rest of the world.

Abu-Ghazaleh says he has followed China’s development experience with admiration, not because he believes it can simply be copied in Jordan, since every country has its own circumstances, history and particularities, but because China has succeeded in building a new global position for itself and has transformed within a few decades into an economic, industrial and technological power that cannot be ignored.

Jordan, he argues, has several characteristics that could make cooperation with China particularly valuable, including its geographical position, human capital and extensive regional relationships.

China, meanwhile, has enormous industrial and technological expertise and investment capabilities, creating a broad area of common interests.

Abu-Ghazaleh also highlights the timing of the visit, noting that many countries are reassessing their economic relationships after recognizing that dependence on a limited number of partners and markets can quickly become a vulnerability.

Jordan’s ability to diversify its economic options is therefore important in the current environment.

For Abu-Ghazaleh, the most impressive aspect of China’s experience is not its skyscrapers, factories, high-speed railways or technology companies, but the decades of work that preceded those achievements, when China invested in people, industry and education and gradually built its capabilities.

He sees a connection between this experience and Jordan’s own interest in education, technology and the knowledge economy. Cooperation with China in these fields could therefore provide long-term benefits.

Abu-Ghazaleh concludes that the importance of the visit should not be measured only by what is announced during the trip, but by the direction it opens for Jordan.

The visit, he says, "opens an important direction for Jordan" and confirms that the Kingdom views the world from a broader perspective, recognizing that the future of its economy depends on building balanced and diversified relationships with emerging centers of global economic power.

Mousa Al-Saket: Moving the Relationship From Trade to Investment and Production

Mousa Al-Saket, a board member of the Amman Chamber of Industry, puts the economic and industrial dimension at the center of his assessment of the visit.

He says the King’s visit to China comes at an "extremely important economic moment," particularly as the declared objective is to upgrade Jordanian-Chinese relations, especially in the economic sphere.

Al-Saket identifies the core objective of the next phase as three interconnected shifts: from trade to investment, from imports to joint production, and from simply transferring technology to building industrial value chains inside Jordan.

From an economic and industrial perspective, he argues, the importance of the visit lies in whether new agreements can deliver these transformations rather than allowing the relationship to remain within its traditional trade framework.

He says transport and logistics, agricultural technology, specialized industries, fertilizers and infrastructure appear likely to be among the main areas of future cooperation.

He also points to previous efforts by the Ministry of Investment, which explored investment opportunities with Chinese companies and institutions in these sectors and promoted Jordan as a regional hub for accessing neighboring markets.

Al-Saket expects upcoming agreements to focus on specific and implementable investment projects, particularly in advanced technology industries and high-value-added sectors, engineering and electrical industries, renewable energy, food and pharmaceutical industries, and logistics.

He links this to the broader objective of strengthening Jordan’s position as a regional industrial hub and increasing the added value of national products, in line with the targets of the Economic Modernization Vision.

For Al-Saket, the real impact should be visible in the Jordanian economy itself, through job creation, higher exports, lower import costs, the attraction of Chinese capital and technology, and the opening of new markets for Jordanian products.

He stresses that Chinese investment should not be limited to factories serving the domestic market. It should be export-oriented and take advantage of Jordan’s geographical position and trade agreements.

Al-Saket points to an existing example in Al-Qatrana, where Chinese investments have expanded into an industrial complex containing factories producing porcelain, electrical appliances, stainless steel, lighting, sanitary products and other goods, while creating employment opportunities.

He also notes that Jordanian exports to China rose by 74.1% in the first quarter of 2026, which he sees as an indication that a more balanced trade relationship is possible.

But Al-Saket believes the next step must be a "qualitative leap."

He proposes establishing an effective Jordanian-Chinese Business Council responsible for following up on projects and turning investment opportunities into viable partnerships, alongside joint projects, concessional financing, knowledge transfer and the integration of small and medium-sized Jordanian companies into Chinese supply chains.

He summarizes his view by saying that the King’s visit represents an opportunity to move the economic relationship with China "from trade to production, investment, technology and exports," allowing China to become a major partner in strengthening Jordan’s productive base and improving the competitiveness of Jordanian industry.

Five Jordanian Voices, and a Broadly Shared Conclusion

Although Al-Shobaki, Abu Hammour, Al-Khitan, Abu-Ghazaleh and Al-Saket approach the visit from different perspectives, their views converge around one clear idea: Jordan does not simply need more trade with China under the current model. It needs a different kind of economic relationship.

Amer Al-Shobaki talks about attracting factories, technology and production chains rather than simply importing goods.

Mohammad Abu Hammour places the implementation of agreements and memoranda of understanding at the top of the agenda, warning against allowing billions of dollars to remain announced figures without real projects.

Fahd Al-Khitan views the visit from a broader political perspective, seeing it as the revitalization of an established strategic partnership rather than a change in Jordan’s foreign policy direction.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh focuses on global transformation and China’s rise, arguing that Jordan needs to expand its economic options at a time when the world is reassessing its centers of power and partnerships.

Mousa Al-Saket puts industry at the forefront, calling for a shift from trade and imports toward joint production, exports and the creation of value chains inside Jordan.

The common thread among these views is that the success of the King’s visit to Beijing will not be determined solely in meeting rooms or by the value of agreements that may be announced. It will be measured by what happens in the months and years that follow.

If understandings turn into factories, investments into jobs, technology into local expertise, Jordanian resources into higher-value products, and exports into a stronger presence in the Chinese market, then the economic relationship between the two countries will genuinely have entered a new phase.

If, however, the relationship remains dominated by imports and memoranda of understanding that fail to reach implementation, the gap between political ambition and economic returns will remain.

That is precisely why Abu Hammour’s observation, "The memoranda are important, but what matters more is achievement on the ground," captures a significant part of Jordan’s expectations from the King’s visit to China.

Ultimately, Beijing represents more than a diplomatic destination for Amman. China has become a global industrial, technological and investment center, while Jordan is seeking to secure a position within these networks by leveraging its geographical location, trade agreements, resources, human capital and stability.

The issue now is not simply how to increase trade with China, but how Jordan can capture a larger share of the value generated by that trade.

That will be the real test after the visit.