China has offered to mediate between rival Palestinian factions and facilitate peace talks with Israel, in the latest sign of Beijing’s intent to expand its diplomatic role in the Middle East.
At a meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, in Beijing on Wednesday, the two leaders also said that they had signed a strategic partnership.
Beijing has ramped up its political presence in the Middle East, hosting talks this year that led to the surprise resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Analysts say Beijing hopes to rival the US as a broker in the region, and replace Russia’s waning influence.
“If China cannot improve its relationship with the US-led west, then it doubles down its efforts in the ‘Global South’, of which the Middle East is a vital piece,” said Yu Jie, research fellow at Chatham House.
In remarks at the start of his meeting with Abbas, Xi said Beijing supported “the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights” and that it was “willing to play an active role in helping Palestine achieve internal reconciliation and promote peace talks”, according to Chinese state media.
Xi reiterated China’s previous support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as the capital of a sovereign Palestinian state, and also advocated for international development assistance for Palestinians.
Xi’s remarks come two months after his foreign minister, Qin Gang, told both the Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers that China was ready to facilitate efforts towards peace talks. China has historically had a close diplomatic relationship with Palestinian leaders — Abbas’s visit is his fifth to China — and in the past two decades has become a big investor in Israeli infrastructure and technology.
Serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014. The prospect of a deal has been rendered increasingly unlikely by the continuing expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the election last year of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, in which ultranationalist settlers hold important roles.
Hopes of a resolution to the conflict have also been undermined by feuding between the two main Palestinian factions: Abbas’s Fatah, which dominates the PA, which exercises limited control in parts of the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. The two have been at loggerheads since fighting a brief civil war in 2007.
Palestinian analysts said that the hostility between the leaderships of the two Palestinian factions would be hard to overcome. And China’s less cosy relationship with Israel meant its ability to resolve the broader conflict was limited.
“If you look at opinion polls, most Palestinians want to see reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas], but I think most people have reconciled themselves to the fact that this is unlikely to happen until Abbas is gone, or unless something dramatic changes,” said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer who previously advised the PA during its negotiations with Israel.
Beijing has also attempted to position itself as a mediator in the war in Ukraine, but its closeness to Russia has prompted scepticism about the extent to which it would be a neutral broker.
