In late July, China scored a diplomatic coup by bringing over a dozen factions of Palestinian political groups to Beijing, where they signed an agreement calling for a unified leadership of Palestine. China’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, most notably the deal it brokered between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023 that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two regional rivals, underscore its continued desire to play a larger role in global affairs more generally.
Its recent efforts in the Israel-Palestine conflict are part of this larger strategy to position Beijing as the leader and champion of the Global South, a role that it juxtaposes against a depiction of the United States as an imperial power fomenting conflict and war around the world. Taken together, they represent a fundamental repositioning of China away from the pro-Western orientation it adopted in the 1980s toward an anticipated bipolar world in which China represents the “non-West.”
China’s diplomatic efforts are unlikely to yield any significant progress or even change in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both the U.S. and Israel dismissed last month’s Beijing Declaration as unworkable because the agreement included Hamas, which Israel and the U.S. label a terrorist organization and reject from future leadership of any Palestinian entity. Andrew Scobell of the U.S. Institute of Peace called the meeting in Beijing a “publicity stunt” that it is unlikely to do much to change the direction of the war in Gaza or the peace that follows, if it ever comes.