Chinese leader Xi Jinping decried \u201ctremendous sufferings\u201d in the Middle East and called for an international peace conference as leaders from Arab nations visit Beijing this week amid mounting global concern over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cSince last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings. War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever,\u201d Xi said Thursday at the opening of a meeting between top diplomats from China and Arab states, also attended by several leaders from the region. <\/p>\n
He also reiterated China\u2019s call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, as well as Beijing\u2019s support for a \u201cmore broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.\u201d <\/p>\n
The diplomatic gatherings in Beijing come as Israel\u2019s war in Gaza remains an urgent global focus, as Israeli forces intensify operations in the enclave\u2019s southern city of Rafah and a humanitarian crisis worsens by the day. <\/p>\n
China, which has sought to deepen its relations across the Middle East in recent years, has positioned itself in alignment with the Arab world and the broader Global South on the nearly eight-month-long conflict, criticizing Israel and calling for a ceasefire. <\/p>\n
Its stance has put it at odds with the United States, long a key power in the region and a primary backer of Israel. Chinese officials have used the conflict to hit out at Washington \u2013 fitting into a larger message from Beijing that frames the US as an aggressor unfairly dominating the current world order. <\/p>\n
Xi in his remarks hailed a \u201ccommon desire for a new era of China-Arab relations\u201d and said their relations could be a \u201cmodel for maintaining world peace and stability.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIn this turbulent world, peaceful relations come from mutual respect, and lasting security is built on fairness and justice,\u201d said the Chinese leader, who has pushed for an alternative model for global security to the alliance-based one backed by the US. <\/p>\n
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain\u2019s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and Tunisian President Kais Saied are in China for state visits that coincide with the ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. <\/p>\n
Delegations from 22 Arab states joined that event at Beijing\u2019s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, according to Chinese state media. <\/p>\n
Diplomats attending Thursday\u2019s ministerial meeting were expected to adopt agreements to deepen cooperation across a range of fields and \u201cmake a common voice of China and Arab states on the Palestinian question,\u201d China\u2019s foreign ministry said ahead of the gathering. <\/p>\n
With its diplomacy this week, China \u201cwants to demonstrate leadership, consolidate ties, and call for ceasefire (in Gaza). It wants to be a particularly strong leader on this issue, at least rhetorically,\u201d according to Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank. <\/p>\n
\u201cChina has chosen to side with Palestine and the Arab countries. The choice is deliberate as it does suggest a desire to align with Arab countries, and the Global South. But China didn\u2019t create the crisis. It only capitalized on it,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Xi said China will provide an additional nearly $70 million to alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to supporting post-conflict reconstruction, adding to roughly $14 million already contributed, as well as $3 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in support of its emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza. <\/p>\n
Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza following the militant group\u2019s October 7 attack on its territory that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 200 taken hostage, according to Israeli forces. More than 36,000 Palestinians have died since the start of Israeli military operations in Gaza, according to its health ministry. <\/p>\n
China has recognized a Palestinian state since 1988. <\/p>\n
Since the start of the war, Beijing has positioned itself as a champion for the broader issue of a two-state solution, which would see the international recognition of a Palestinian state, and dispatched rounds of envoys to the region to meet Arab counterparts. It has not explicitly condemned Hamas for the October 7 attacks. <\/p>\n
Beijing last month hosted representatives from rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas for \u201creconciliation\u201d talks. <\/p>\n
Even as Beijing has sought to tighten ties throughout the Middle East in recent years, observers say its influence in the region remains limited. <\/p>\n
Beijing has also appeared unwilling to take certain steps to respond to regional effects of the conflict. For example, it said it did not deploy additional naval assets to secure Red Sea shipping lanes that were under attack in recent months by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. <\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s ministerial meeting is the first such gathering since China held its first joint summit with Arab leaders in late 2022 in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n
Then, Xi was welcomed to the Gulf state with fanfare \u2013 cutting a sharp contrast to a tense visit from US President Joe Biden earlier that year amid American outrage over Riyadh\u2019s alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its consulate in Istanbul. <\/p>\n
Xi is also holding bilateral talks with visiting leaders this week. <\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s Sisi was greeted with a red-carpet welcome to Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, where the two leaders agreed to deepen their strategic partnership, according to a readout from China\u2019s foreign ministry. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping decried \u201ctremendous sufferings\u201d in the Middle East and called for an international peace conference as leaders from Arab nations visit Beijing this week amid mounting global concern over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. \u201cSince last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings. War should not continue <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}