Regardless of the outcome of the meetings, China aims to strengthen its image as a guarantor of stability and a responsible power capable of communicating with everyone. And it is succeeding better in the Middle East than in the war in Ukraine.
China enters decisively into the Middle East crisis. And in particular on the Palestinian question. The delegations of the Islamist group Hamas and the political movement Fatah are in fact in Beijing for a series of talks aimed at the creation of a government of national unity.
Hamas is responsible for the attacks on October 7 against Israel, while Fatah politically controls the West Bank and elects the president of the Palestinian Authority recognized by the West, currently Mahmoud Abbas. The two rival Palestinian factions have failed to resolve their political disputes since Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
For a few days, the Lebanese and Arab media had anticipated the Chinese trip of the delegations of the two factions.
Beijing’s substantial, albeit implicit, confirmation arrived on Friday. “China has always supported the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority and supports the internal reconciliation of Palestinian factions,” Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference.
The two delegations, led by senior officials, arrived in the Chinese capital between Friday evening and Saturday morning. And the meetings would have already begun. Fatah’s is led by senior official Azzam Al-Ahmed. That of Hamas instead comes from the deputy head of the political office, Moussa Abu Marzouk. It is the first time that a Hamas delegation has publicly visited China since the start of the war in Gaza.
Just on Friday, at the end of his trip to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Beijing’s possible role in reducing tensions in the Middle East. But the United States is wary of attempts at reconciliation between the Palestinian factions, given that it considers Hamas a terrorist group.
China, however, has always kept a channel of dialogue open. And in March, envoy Wang Kejian met with Hamas political leaders in Qatar, agreeing to host the talks. In recent years, on the other hand, China has significantly increased its diplomatic and commercial influence in the Middle East.
In December 2022, Xi Jinping made his second foreign trip after the Covid-19 pandemic to Saudi Arabia. There he signed 34 bilateral agreements worth around 30 billion dollars, but above all Xi also participated in a multilateral meeting with the Gulf Council countries.
In 2023, Xi received Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, while the decisive talks took place in Beijing, resulting in an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran for the restart of diplomatic relations between the two regional rivals. Also last year, Abbas visited Beijing.
After the Hamas attacks on October 7, China immediately reiterated its historic position in favor of the two-state solution and in the following weeks said it supported the unity and coordination of Muslim countries on the Palestinian issue.
In recent months, a delegation of foreign ministers from Muslim-majority countries was received: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia and the Palestinian National Authority.
On that occasion, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: “We are a good friend and brother of the Arab and Islamic countries.”
In February, Beijing urged the International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. In recent weeks, he has instead pushed for the implementation of the two-state solution and for Palestine’s entry into the United Nations.
All actions that could bring advantages to China’s position in the Middle East, but also to its relations with other Muslim-majority countries.
Starting from the closest ones, namely in South-East Asia, with Malaysia and Indonesia. The new initiative on talks between Hamas and Fatah fits into this context.
Regardless of the outcome of the meetings, China aims to strengthen the image it tries to project of itself as a guarantor of stability and a responsible power capable of communicating with everyone. And it is succeeding better in the Middle East than in the war in Ukraine.
China enters decisively into the Middle East crisis. And in particular on the Palestinian question. The delegations of the Islamist group Hamas and the political movement Fatah are in fact in Beijing for a series of talks aimed at the creation of a government of national unity.
Hamas is responsible for the attacks on October 7 against Israel, while Fatah politically controls the West Bank and elects the president of the Palestinian Authority recognized by the West, currently Mahmoud Abbas. The two rival Palestinian factions have failed to resolve their political disputes since Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
