China said on Wednesday that it established a “strategic partnership” with the Palestinian Authority during a visit to Beijing by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, The Associated Press reported.
The announcement marked another step in China”s campaign to gain political and economic influence in the Middle East, where it is competing with the United States.
China is seeking energy resources and markets for its military and civilian exports. Beijing has long maintained diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority, but its experience in the region is mainly limited to construction, manufacturing and other economic projects.
Abbas was welcomed with full military honors at the Great Hall of the People in China”s capital, according to AP.
“We are good friends and partners,” Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is head of the ruling Communist Party, told Abbas at the start of their meeting. “We have always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”
“China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Palestinian side to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue as soon as possible,” he said.
China’s Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, recently told his Israeli and Palestinian Arab counterparts that his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks between the two sides.
China has more than once offered to mediate talks between Israel and the PA, but has also expressed support for a two-state solution, with an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state, bounded by the pre-1967 borders and with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
In 2013, China presented a four-point proposal for a solution to the Israel-PA conflict. The Chinese proposal focused on an independent Palestinian state, negotiations as the only way to peace, the principle of “land for peace”, and on guarantees the international community should provide for the progress of the peace process.
Israeli-PA peace talks have been stalled since 2014, when the PA unilaterally applied to join international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.
In September of 2020, the PA said it began preliminary diplomatic steps to hold an international conference in an attempt to bypass talks with Israel, though nothing has yet materialized as a result of this effort.
