Xi Jinping in San Francisco
Israel-Hamas, delegation of Muslim majority countries in China
Immediate ceasefire, entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and green light for the two-state solution with international recognition of Palestine. These are the three key points of the requests from Muslim-majority countries received by the Chinese government in Beijing. Points on which China offers total support, during a visit that confirms the growing influence of the People’s Republic over Arab and Islamic countries. A message also comes from the United States, whose influence in the Middle East seems to be suffering a phase of tarnishing.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia and Palestine arrived in the Chinese capital on Monday 19 November. and the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Chadian Hissein Brahim Taha. This is the first stop in a series of trips by the delegation fresh from the summit in Riyadh in recent days to try to obtain a ceasefire in Gaza. The first stage takes place significantly in China, which also occupies the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council in November.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, inaugurating the two days of talks, said he “fully supports” the two-state solution to Gaza, in line with the appeal that came from the Arab-Islamic summit which took place in recent days in Riyadh. Wang also added that the international community “must act now and take effective measures to end the humanitarian disaster.” Wang, who also heads the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Communist Party, immediately welcomed his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.
China’s relations between Palestine, the Middle East and Israel
However, relations between Beijing and the Palestinian Authority are long-standing, with recognition having already taken place several decades ago. Last June, however, President Xi Jinping also received the leader Mahmoud Abbas, proposing to play a mediation role for a possible negotiation with Israel. The Hamas attacks have undermined the prospect of dialogue for the truth, which was already made remote to say the least by the posture of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
But China continues to argue that the situation must be viewed as a whole and that the two-state solution is the only way to ensure the “legitimate security concerns” of both sides. Wang called for the international community to act urgently to stem the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza. After the October 7 attacks, China condemned any attacks against civilians, but without explicitly mentioning Hamas, and then criticized Israel for having “gone beyond the right of self-defense”, ordering it to stop what it called a “collective punishment of inhabitants of Gaza”.
A position that has disappointed Israel, even though the door to dialogue has not closed. China’s special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun traveled to several Muslim countries but also met the Israeli ambassador in Beijing and it is not excluded that there may be new visits. China has increased its presence in the Middle East in recent years and has repeatedly offered to mediate regional disputes.
Just think of the role played in the restart of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The two great regional rivals signed the agreement in Beijing last March. Although previous rounds of negotiations had been held elsewhere and the Chinese role was above all that of “officializing” the agreement, the symbolic relevance of the stage chosen by Riyadh and Tehran cannot be overlooked, which from 1 January will also enter together to part of the BRICS group although Chinese push for enlargement.
Beijing’s relations with the players in the area are diversified and in any case always quite deep. Relations with Iran are traditionally strong, with President Ebrahim Raisi signing a new long-term bilateral partnership agreement not long ago. China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner. And the balance is in Riyadh’s favor: 57 billion in exports against 30.3 billion in imports. Saudi Arabia is China’s largest oil supplier. In 2022 Beijing paid out 55 billion for 1.77 million barrels per day. Saudi giant Aramco announced late last year it would build a $10 billion refinery in northeast China.
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman considers China a key partner for his Vision 2030 program and is seeking to involve Chinese businesses in ambitious megaprojects intended to diversify the economy away from fossil fuels. Among these is the construction of the futuristic Neom metropolis. Other agreements were signed during Xi’s visit to Riyadh last December, during which the Chinese leader attended a summit with the Gulf countries. But relations with Israel have also deepened over time, with Beijing becoming the country’s second largest trading partner behind the USA.
Washington, which has asked China to exert its influence on regional players starting from Iran to prevent the conflict from spreading, now seems forced to observe the partially unprecedented Chinese diplomatic activism. If the Chinese position on the war in Ukraine has been rather controversial from the beginning, or at least that is how it is perceived in the West, the position on the Israel-Hamas conflict sees the support of many more actors even outside the region.
It remains to be seen whether Beijing will use this strategic advantage to deal some blows to the United States, accused for example of Ukraine of “throwing fuel on the fire” of the conflict. So far, official Chinese rhetoric towards Washington has been less aggressive on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Furthermore, a summit between Xi and Joe Biden was held in San Francisco a few days ago, aimed at easing tensions between the two great powers. While waiting to understand how much bilateral relations can be stabilized, China is nevertheless giving a very clear signal to the USA and to global diplomacy in general, presenting itself as the presumed guarantor of stability even on the historically most unstable dossier of all.
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