China’s Diplomatic Moves In The Middle East Is A Keen Strategy To Be ‘Seen’; China’s Complex Geopolitical Gambit Over Israel-Gaza Conflict

China is increasingly taking on a diplomatic role in the region, particularly in promoting peace talks between Israel and Hamas; while China lacks significant experience in mediating long-running conflicts, this move is seen as an opportunity for China to enhance its influence and assert itself as a diplomatic player in the global arena.

China’s interest and diplomatic hustling in the region as it grapples with conflict, one that could spill to other regions, comes in days after the United States ushered diplomacy in the Middle East, which had President Joe Biden’s historic wartime visit to Israel.

Interestingly, as news of Zhai Jun, Beijing’s special envoy to the Middle East, embarking on a tour of the region with the objective of promoting peace talks between Israel and Hamas comes in, Beijing has still refused to condemn or even name the Palestinian militant group in any of its statements.

Zhai travelled to Qatar and attended a peace summit in Egypt, calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza and reiterating China’s support for a two-state solution; however, if and when he will visit Israel is not clear as Beijing has not provided any details of the trip.

Brokering Peace Or A Trip To Be ‘Seen’
China’s advocacy for peace is relatively new, considering the country has little experience or expertise when it comes to playing a mediator in long-standing conflicts, especially considering the Israel Hamas conflict as the region is highly divided and China has no meaningful political and security presence there.

Hence, whether this trip will have a meaningful impact remains to be seen; however, experts do see this as an opportunity and a strategic step on China’s part to perhaps tip the global balance of power further as competition with the US gets further heightened.

Beijing is striving to use the diplomatic mission to shore up its position as a champion of the Arab world and the Global South, which has long been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and dissatisfied with the American-led world order, experts say.

Jonathan Fulton, an Abu Dhabi-based senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Zhai’s mission will be to “demonstrate China’s solidarity with Arab causes” and to promote “a different vision for the region than the US does.”

“China wants to be seen as an active, responsible great power, but it doesn’t really have the depth of engagement in the region that results in a leading position,” he added.

Western Order Changing And A Deepening Divide
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global geopolitical landscape has never been more divided, and this division was on full display last week when Biden landed in Israel to show solidarity with America’s closest ally in the Middle East, Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the other hand, hosted his “old friend” Vladimir Putin in Beijing and hailed the deepening political trust between their countries.

According to Putin, the two autocrats held detailed discussions on the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and described them as “common threats” that brought Russia and China closer together, and another ally that can be added to this growing proximity could be Iran.

The broader objective here being weakening the Western order, and
this tactical alignment is already playing out on the ground, as one of the first meetings the Chinese envoy had upon touching down in the Middle East was with his Russian counterpart.

The position held by Beijing and Moscow starkly contrasts that of Washington, which has thrown its weight behind Israel and dispatched two aircraft carrier strike groups to deter other regional actors from joining the conflict.

The Question Of Islam
China has sworn a “zero-tolerance” approach to Islamist militancy, and it showed this by detaining ethnic Uyghurs en masse in its far western region of Xinjiang; hence, it has not explicitly condemned Hamas for its terror attacks on Israel, and neither has Russia, which had its history of suppressing political Islam within its own borders.

However, notably, both countries have vocally criticized Israel for its retaliation to the Hamas attacks.
Likewise, Russian and Chinese state media have already blamed US policy for the escalating conflict, and as the situation in Gaza deteriorates, Beijing and Moscow will only become even more critical of the US approach.

Pro-Palestinian stance
China’s pro-Palestinian stance dates back decades and is rooted in revolutionary ideology; back in the era of Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China, Beijing had then armed and trained Palestinian militant groups as part of its Cold War support for national liberation movements.

However, after the country’s reform and opening following Mao’s death in 1976, China adopted a more pragmatic foreign policy.

Even though it continued to offer political support for the Palestinian cause and became one of the first countries to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state in 1988, Beijing also warmed to Israel and established formal diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 1992.

Chinese investment and trade with Israel skyrocketed, especially in the technology sector, over the decades and in 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed his country and China as a “marriage made in heaven.”

However, at the same time, throughout their economic cooperation, China has maintained its political support for the Palestinians, voting in favour of them and against Israel at the United Nations whenever conflicts flared.

Why so?
Because almost half of China’s oil imports come from Arab states, which also account for more than 20 votes at the UN – potentially helpful for Beijing regarding issues like defending its treatment of Uyghurs.

China As A Mediator

The point to be noted is that it is not the first time China has expressed an interest in resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Beijing’s aspirations to be a mediator started as early as the 2000s but remained primarily figurative; Beijing forward several vague proposals and invited politically insignificant Palestinian and Israeli figures for talks in Beijing – however, those efforts did not lead anywhere.

This time, the same is the view, as experts do not expect the result to be much different despite China’s recent success in brokering a rapprochement between rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

According to experts, while China’s involvement in the Middle East has grown, its interests there remain primarily economic – and its relations with regional players are mainly transactional.

Similarly, whether China will be willing or able to leverage its close relationship with Iran, which funds and arms both Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and de-escalate the war and prevent it from spilling over into a broader conflict remains to be seen.

How has China responded to the Israel-Gaza war?
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Beijing in June, China vowed to contribute “Chinese wisdom, Chinese strength” to resolve the long-standing conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.

That pledge was widely seen as part of China’s ambition to expand its diplomatic clout in the Middle East in a region traditionally dominated by US power.

Hence, Beijing’s offer to broker peace in one of the world’s most uncontrollable conflicts is yet again being tested by a fresh outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza.

So far, China’s response to the crisis has been a bland call for restraint from both sides, with no condemnation of Hamas for a rampage that unleashed the killing of civilians and kidnapping of hostages, including children and the elderly.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who touted a Beijing-led security initiative for the Middle East as an alternative to the US-led system when he last visited the region in December, has not made any public statement on the conflict. Thus, no response may have exposed Beijing’s limited influence in the region despite official propaganda discussing China as the world’s new peacemaker.

China’s response
While the United States was steadfast in its condemnations against Hamas, Europe and much of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Beijing refrained from calling out the group and sought to present itself as a neutral party in the conflict.

In a brief statement Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry called on “relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities.” It repeated Beijing’s support for a “two-state solution” to establish an independent State of Palestine as a way out of the conflict.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was in Beijing for a bipartisan congressional visit, also expressed his disappointment with China’s response during a meeting with Xi on Monday.

“I say this with respect but I’m disappointed by the foreign ministry’s statement showing no sympathy or support for the Israeli people during these tragic times,” Schumer said, echoing criticism he had made earlier while meeting with China’s foreign minister.

Following the criticism, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning went a little further at a regular news briefing later on Monday, saying China was “deeply saddened by the civilian casualties” and condemns “any acts that harm civilians.”

But she sidestepped a question about whether Beijing considers Hamas’ attacks on civilians as terrorist acts and reiterated the message of neutrality, calling China “a friend to both Israel and Palestine.”

In its statements, Beijing has stopped naming Hamas, describing the crisis vaguely as an “escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel.”

The closest reference to Hamas came from Zhang Jun, Beijing’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who said “intense clashes” had broken out between Israel and “armed groups in Gaza.”

Like Russia and most Arab countries, China views Hamas as a resistance organization, not a terrorist group as designated by the US and European Union.

China’s reluctance to name or condemn Hamas has drawn comparison to its response to the Ukraine war, where Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s aggression or even refer to it as an “invasion.”

Also, Beijing’s unclear stance on Hamas’ violence stands in stark contrast to its “zero-tolerance” approach to terrorism in the western region of Xinjiang, where authorities unleashed a years-long security crackdown that saw the mass internment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

China’s State Media Coverage
Despite its claims of neutrality, coverage of the conflict on China’s state-run television appears more slanted; at the same time, Chinese state media were also quick to blame the US for the conflict now raging in the heart of the Middle East.

Hamas fighters’ brutal killing of Israeli civilians was given little air time on the country’s most watched news program on state broadcaster CCTV. Instead, the prime-time show focused primarily on Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza – and the scenes of devastation they created there.

In an editorial Monday, the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, criticized Western countries – especially the US – for “taking sides” on the issue and “fanning the flames rather than cooling down the situation.”

“This is a consistent pattern for Western countries in many conflict regions, where they often create substantial obstacles to crisis resolution,” it said.

On China’s heavily censored social media, many users have voiced support for the Palestinians and criticized Israel, many times with a direct or veiled swipe at the US.

Caught In The Middle
Beijing now finds itself in a slipper spot as the conflict escalates; China’s response was consistent with its traditional lean toward the Palestinians on the issue with Israel.

China has long been friendly with Palestinian leaders; when the Gaza conflict last flared up in 2021, Beijing – which held the presidency of the UN Security Council at the time – voiced support for the Palestinians and presented China as an alternative to the US on the issue.

But China has also deepened economic ties with Israel in recent years, ramping up trade and investment in technology and infrastructure sectors. Israel has also participated in Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, which saw the construction of a new port in Haifa, the busiest shipping hub in the country, by a Chinese state-owned company.

However, the realization that Israel is always going to be in the US camp remains a major concern for Beijing, especially as its global rivalry with Washington heats up.

Resolving the conflict will be a far cry from the peace deal China helped broker between Iran and Saudi Arabia, where both governments were looking for an exit ramp from bilateral tensions to focus on their own domestic challenges.

In that case, the heavy lifting had already been done with the year-long effort by local actors Iraq and Oman – and China stepped in at the last minute to offer great power support.

In June, Following Abbas’s trip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had also received an invitation for an official visit to China, but that trip is unlikely to take place now.

The Last Bit,
While China’s involvement in the Middle East and its role as a peace mediator is a relatively new development, many experts remain skeptical about its potential for delivering concrete results in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

China’s diplomatic mission in the region is seen as an opportunity for Beijing to strengthen its position as a champion of the Arab world and the Global South, particularly at a time when the global power balance is shifting and competition with the United States is intensifying.

With little historical involvement in the Middle East and limited political and security influence, China’s primary interests in the region appear to be economic, making it challenging to wield significant leverage in this long-standing conflict.

While China’s support for Palestine aligns with its past revolutionary ideology, the success of its diplomatic mission and its ability to bring about meaningful change remain uncertain.

The Middle East continues to be a complex geopolitical puzzle, and China’s participation in the diplomatic efforts adds another layer to an already intricate situation.