Chinese diplomatic ambitions clash with the realities of the Middle East

From left to right, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, number 2 of Fatah, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Moussa Abou Marzouk, a Hamas official, in Beijing, July 23, 2024. PEDRO PARDO / AFP The attack October 7 brought China back to its traditional position in support of the Palestinian cause, erasing years of efforts at economic rapprochement with Israel, and showed the limits of Chinese ambitions to pose as a peacemaker in the region. The deterioration of relations was rapid after the unprecedented assault carried out by Hamas in October 2023, during which members of the Palestinian movement killed 1,200 people. China has never explicitly condemned Hamas, to the great dismay of the Jewish state. In the months that followed, China, seeing the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip rise, repeatedly called for a ceasefire and reiterated its position in favor of a solution to two states. This reminder of its historic posture, in support of Palestine, which Beijing has recognized since 1988, is also a way of establishing itself as one of the leaders of non-Western states, while opinions in many emerging countries and Arab countries share the same disgust at seeing the images coming from the Gaza Strip over the past year. Failed efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah Israel was the first recipient of Chinese investment in the Middle East between 2015 and 2018, a trend which had already subsequently suffered from American reminders of the danger of a Chinese presence in sectors such as telecommunications and high technologies. China has never had any control over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it understood after October 7 that the situation was not conducive to its calls for restraint being heard. Without any other leverage, she finds herself a spectator, a setback in view of her ambition to become a determining player in international relations. Even within the Palestinian camp, Chinese efforts to mediate a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, which resulted in two trips by their delegations to China in April and July, have not been successful. made it possible to resolve the deep-seated disputes between them. China had pulled off a high-flying coup by positioning itself as a facilitator of the reestablishment of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, announced in Beijing in March 2023, but this then happened in calmer times. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers China poses as a mediator between Palestinian Hamas and Fatah Add to your selections China can however reassure itself by noting that on the other hand, the great American power is no longer heard from its Israeli ally, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has no regard for the Biden administration, although it is his first arms supplier. The impasse in which the United States finds itself can only reinforce the Chinese discourse on the need to put an end to the American order. Beijing is striving to contrast this situation with its own concept, the “comprehensive security initiative”, supported by Chinese President Xi Jinping since 2022, according to which the security of some cannot be achieved to the detriment of others, in opposition to the network of American alliances.



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