Hong Kong, 23 June (AKI) - This week's Middle East tour by Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, is a rare visit by a top Beijing official to the region, signals China's growing diplomatic ambitions and its quest to secure oil supplies for its energy-hungry, rapidly expanding economy. It's a change of focus for Beijing; for decades, China's communist rulers, including Mao Tse-tung, focused their diplomatic attentions on Africa, where China promoted itself as a sort of guiding light for the Third World and a bulwark against the neo-colonialist tendencies of the West. China also sought to isolate its tiny rival,...