China’s relations with the Gulf are often discussed in terms of investment, infrastructure and energy. In Doha, the capital of Qatar, a new exhibition speaks to another point of connection, one that’s rooted in maritime exchange and historical objects.

The international exhibition Boats Floating Afar: The Maritime Trade of Ancient Chinese Ceramics at the National Museum of Qatar brings together around 120 objects in collaboration with the National Museum of China. Visitors to the exhibition can wonder at ceramics that traveled from the kilns of Jingdezhen to the ports of the Gulf — a feat achieved 1,000 years before either state existed in its current form. Among the objects is a modest detail that tells a much bigger story of global trade: fragments of Chinese pottery excavated in Qatar alongside artifacts tied to the Cirebon wreck off the coast of Java.

I see Boats Floating Afar as evidence for a two-fold proposition about diplomacy. That maritime trade left behind an infrastructure of contact that predates the modern apparatus of embassies and state visits; and that this form of exchange established an enduring framework for cultural diplomacy and collaboration to build on. Qatar’s Years of Culture initiative is one interpretation of this evolution that is building contemporary partnerships around historical connections.

The long-lasting relationships born from the 2016 Qatar-China Year of Culture, for example, speak to the staying power of cultural diplomacy. Treasures of China, a temporary exhibition, brought significant Chinese artifacts to Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, while the Pearls: Treasures from the Seas and the Rivers exhibition brought objects from Qatar Museums’ collection to the National Museum of China in Beijing. The sustained partnership allows scholars, curators and conservators a shared field of inquiry where objects become the starting point for research and continued exchange.

Built originally around a documented, archaeologically verifiable trade relationship, the 2016 partnership year has expanded cultural relations to an institutional level. A 2024 agreement between Qatar Museums and the National Museum of China set out a framework for exhibitions, research, and conservation cooperation. On the Move: Reframing Nomadic Pastoralism in Qatar, a prominent thematic exhibition, was held in Beijing from June to September this year; Chinese ceramics are now on view in Doha.

This argument is about sequencing. States that treat the maritime record as diplomatic infrastructure can develop a standing basis for cooperation built on heritage protection, underwater archaeology, museum training, and scholarly exchange that a change of government does not easily unwind. Partnership is instead anchored in a shared physical record rather than a shared political moment.

Qatar does not choose its Years of Culture partners by lottery. In each case, there is a through-line. For China, as well as future partners like Greece and Egypt, cultural diplomacy programming extends pre-existing trade relationships that date back to the Silk Road’s southern route through the Gulf.

The ceramics now on display from Beijing are, in the end, a template rather than a one-off. They demonstrate what has already been in effect across Qatar’s global partnerships — a Gulf state with significant archaeological and institutional capacity turning a historical trade route into a live diplomatic relationship. Qatar is building durable cultural diplomacy by grounding its partnerships in documented historical connections, of which there are many for a state that’s rooted in the movement of ideas, people, and trade, and by turning that shared history into lasting cooperation.

China and Qatar, both custodians of maritime pasts, have an opportunity to show what such cooperation has achieved and can achieve.

The author is executive director of cultural diplomacy for Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums. He has more than three decades of experience in higher education, global engagement, and international partnerships. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.