China has been expanding its political clout with Middle East countries in recent years, building on its traditional energy and economic interests, although experts have doubts about Beijing’s capacity and interest to be a bigger influence in the region like the US.
In a Beijing meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in June, Mr Xi proposed an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said China is willing to play an active role in facilitating peace talks.
Mr Xi also put forward a three-point proposal to solve the conflict: establishing an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital; channelling more development assistance to Palestinians; and creating the right conditions for the resumption of peace talks.
In March, China brokered discussions between bitter rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, resulting in an agreement to restore ties between Riyadh and Teheran – a diplomatic breakthrough that led to debates about how much of a challenge this presented to US influence in the region.
On Tuesday, China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East Issue Zhai Jun said China is ready to work with Egypt – which is the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel and had previously helped secure a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas – to end hostilities. Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, is concerned about a mass exodus of Palestinians into its Sinai peninsula.
The root cause of the cycle of conflict is that the Palestine question still has not been settled in a just manner, said Mr Zhai in a phone call with an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official, and the fundamental way out lies in implementing the two-state solution.
A day later, Mr Zhai had another call, this time with First Deputy Foreign Minister of Palestine Amal Jadou, reiterating China’s commitment and adding that it will “play a constructive role in promoting a full, just and lasting settlement of the Palestine question”.
But China-Israel relations expert Carice Witte believes Beijing’s current stance is untenable. She told ST it is difficult to see how China can be seen as a neutral actor, with Beijing refusing to call out Hamas for its violent actions.
Many who support the Palestinian aim for a state have acknowledged that the heinous crimes by Hamas have nothing to do with self-determination, added Ms Witte, who is executive director of the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership, an Israel-based think-tank.
“To not clearly oppose Hamas is to support Hamas,” she said. “If China’s stance on Hamas changes drastically, or if it influences Iran to end (Hamas’) call for the evisceration of the Jewish state, then perhaps it will be able to play a role in mediation between Israel and the Palestine Authority.”
Assistant Professor Benjamin Ho of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, who specialises in Chinese foreign policy, said China has little interest to be involved in the conflict in a big way.
He told ST that he has doubts about the Chinese having a sustained interest in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “So long as the conflict doesn’t touch them, they would rather let other countries muddle into the swamp while it remains focused on its interests elsewhere.”
International relations scholar Shi Yinhong of Renmin University told ST that the Chinese position on the conflict is clear: The Israelis and Hamas should agree to an immediate ceasefire and an independent Palestinian state as the final solution.
However, both sides, as well as the US and its Western allies – who he believes will support Israel to fight at least a war of revenge to the end – will not pay real attention to Chinese proposals, he added. “So for a while at least, Beijing’s Middle East policy will be paralysed by the war.”
On the impact of the Israel-Hamas war on US-China ties, he said: “US-China relations have been bad enough, and the war in the Middle East cannot make them remarkably worse.”