and for more now, let's bring in william hurst. he is a professor of chinese politics at the university of cambridge. what do you think the fire in avante has sparked so much outcry? i'm not exactly sure what we have seen no over many months. in fact are sporadic outbreaks of protests around similar incidents. this isn't the 1st such incident of lockdown measures, allegedly preventing the delivery of basic public services. but i think what is also true in this specific case is that those videos that some of which i think showed him a report are quite difficult to watch. and they did spread very quickly all over the country, and many people saw scenes that are quite disturbing. and the protest this has led to, they've been compared to the 98090. and i'm in student led demonstrations while there have been protests in the decades in between few have actually been as successful as this latest one appears to have been. is there something different this time around? i don't know how successful we might measure this wave of protest to be

i asked william hurst, he is a professor of chinese politics at the university of cambridge. i think it's significant for 3 reasons. the 1st is that your study, ravia is china's largest supplier for petroleum and petroleum products, at least as of right now. and china is actually saudi arabia's largest trading partner across the board. so there is an existing trade relationship that is extremely important to both sides. and they'll both be looking to cement and augment that relationship with this visit. the 2nd area you touched on just now in the report is that both sides, i think, are looking to expand the trade and economic relationship beyond petroleum and petroleum products, into areas of infrastructure, technology, green energy, and other spheres. and then the 3rd aspect of this is that if we look at the middle east as a whole, at least from china's perspective, to a large extent, it's divided into a contest between saudi arabia and iran. and china is trying, i think, to maintain the best relationship that it can with both iran and saudi arabia. going ahead a talk a litt