Palestine's Abbas to Visit China After Mediation Offer

Facts

• China's foreign ministry on Friday announced that Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas will make a state visit to the PRC next week at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as Beijing seeks to mediate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.¹
• He will be the first Arab leader to visit China this year, with the ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin pointing out the positivity of PRC-Palestine relations.²
• During the visit, Abbas and Xi are expected to discuss the latest developments on regional and international topics of shared concern as well as the Palestinian question. Several agreements are also to be signed in meetings between both delegations.³
• This comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in April reportedly told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that China wants to broker peace talks focused on a "two-state solution" to their territorial conflict, which has stalled since 2014.⁴
• China's ambassador to the UN last month condemned Israel's recent expansion of settlements in the West Bank as well as a senior official visit to a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem that aggravated clashes.⁵
• Within the context of Beijing positioning itself as a leader in the Middle East — including brokering a restoration of ties between Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia in March — US Sec. of State Antony Blinken this week has also urged Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu not to ignore the possibilities of a Palestinian state.¹

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²The Times of Israel, ³WAFA Agency, ⁴France 24, and ⁵South China Morning Post.

Narratives

• Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global Times. After successfully mediating the reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Beijing is now working to build on this positive trend and promote an enduring two-state solution for the Palestine-Israel conflict. The Palestinian issue is central to the Middle East's peace and stability as well as to global justice, and it has long remained unsettled because of Washington's unproductive favoritism to Israel.
• Anti-China narrative, as provided by The Diplomat. China has made empty promises to fix Israeli-Palestinian relations for years, so Pres. Abbas should not expect much from this new round of flattery. Despite inviting the Palestinian leader for similar talks in 2013 and 2017, Israel in 2018 was the world's leading importer of Chinese goods and China was the second-largest importer of Israeli goods. Any peace talks initiated by Beijing will likely be more repackaged "four-point plans" that lead nowhere.

Predictions