Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday told visiting Arab leaders that he wants to work with them to find “solutions to hotspot issues” and set a model for global governance while promising more financial aid for Palestinians in Gaza.
“The Middle East is a land bestowed with broad prospects for development, but the war is still raging on it,” Xi said, according to a Foreign Ministry readout. “Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings. War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever.”
He added that “commitment to the two-state solution should not” waver, referring to the long-elusive notion of Israeli and Palestinian states existing side by side.
Xi was addressing the opening ceremony of the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing, attended by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Tunisian President Kais Saied and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
China has been sharply critical of Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed around 1,200 people in its Oct. 7 raid into Israeli territory. About 36,000 have been killed during Israel’s monthslong response in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave.
Despite previously warming ties with Israel, China has not explicitly condemned the Hamas for its attack on Oct. 7, while vocally backing the Palestinian cause and calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Xi underscored his government’s position on Thursday, telling the Arab dignitaries that “China firmly supports the establishment of an independent State of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” as well as Palestine’s “full membership in the U.N.”
The U.S., a close partner of Israel, vetoed a widely supported United Nations resolution in April that would have granted Palestine full membership in the world body. Washington advocates direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians instead.
Norway, Spain and Ireland this week formally recognized a Palestinian state, suggesting it was their way of pushing for a peaceful political solution. A furious Israel accused them of rewarding the violence of Oct. 7.
Xi told his Arab guests that “in this turbulent world, peaceful relations come from mutual respect, and lasting security is built on fairness and justice.” He said Beijing wants to partner with them in exploring “solutions to hotspot issues that uphold fairness and justice and sustain peace and security.”
He said China will provide another 500 million yuan ($69 million) of aid on top of 100 million yuan in emergency assistance already offered to ease the humanitarian crisis and fund postwar reconstruction. He also said Beijing will make a $3 million donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Egypt’s El-Sisi, in bilateral talks with Xi on Wednesday, had emphasized the need to end the Gaza war due to the severe humanitarian and other consequences, according to Egyptian media. Egypt, one of the few Arab countries that recognizes Israel, is also the only one that shares a border with Gaza.
A Chinese readout said El-Sisi thanked China for its “consistent commitment to justice on the Palestinian question” and said Egypt is “ready to maintain close communication with China to push for an early easing of tensions in the Gaza Strip.”
The Chinese president’s speech to the forum came as he seeks to position Beijing as a leader of the so-called Global South and exert more influence in the Middle East, despite China’s own record of alleged human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has long denied the allegations.
Touting a range of investment and economic cooperation initiatives, including renewable energy, Xi said China is “ready to work with the Arab side to jointly champion an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and set a model of South-South cooperation on global governance.”
