Chinese diplomacy shares with Russia the rare ability to talk to everyone in the Middle East. She demonstrated it again this Sunday, when she met in Qatar with the leader of Hamas himself, Ismail Haniye. The envoy from Beijing, Wang Kejian, thus completed a tour that had taken him to Israel and Palestine days before.
Haniye, accompanied by other Palestinian leaders, met with a large Chinese delegation, which also included the Chinese ambassador to Qatar. In the background, a gigantic photograph of East Jerusalem, which Beijing considers should be the capital of an independent Palestinian state. Although the meeting took place on Sunday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry briefly confirmed it this Tuesday.
Ismail Haniye, who leads the political front of Hamas, became prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority and has subsequently headed the Gaza administration several times. In this phase of the conflict, the contrast between his comfortable life in the Qatari emirate and the hardships of his people in the Strip is more stark than ever.
It should be noted that a few days after Hamas’ deadly assault against Jewish populations near the blockaded Gaza, several members of its political leadership were invited to leave Turkey. Neither they, nor the Israeli government, appear to be in a hurry to release the hostages or put an end to hostilities.
On the other hand, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, once again referred this month, before the plenary session of the National People’s Congress, to the need for a quick ceasefire in Gaza, without sparing adjectives about the ongoing Israeli revenge. (although at first it recognized his right to self-defense, in accordance with international law). Wang has also proposed “immediate recognition” of Palestine as a full member of the UN.
On several occasions, Wang Yi has expressed that he does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, believing that the use of weapons to repel an invasion is not terrorism, but a right recognized by the United Nations since the dawn of decolonization. Nothing surprising, since the Chinese Communist Party – like the Kuomintang, today in Taiwan – derives much of its legitimacy from its own fight against the Japanese occupation.
According to Beijing’s official note, its envoy to Qatar “exchanged views on the Gaza conflict and other issues.” Wang Kejiang is Beijing’s first envoy to Israel and Palestine since the latest phase of the decades-long conflict erupted. The diplomat would have stated that “Hamas is part of the social fabric of the Palestinian nation”, welcoming “the good mutual relations.”
This lack of squeamishness – or scruples – is criticized by Western countries that consider Hamas a “terrorist organization.” A similar unanimity existed until now in maintaining relations with the Palestinian National Authority, in Ramallah, without recognizing Palestine as a state.
Although China’s pro-Palestinian stance is not new, it is now more visible, due to the inaction of Narendra Modi’s India and the European Union. In this case combined with indifference to the destruction of civil infrastructure built and rebuilt with European taxes.
Although the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has been toughening his tone and yesterday he explicitly denounced Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon of war, in Asia it is perceived that speeches are not translated into actions. In Muslim-majority nations, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, outrage is palpable on the streets over the West’s apparent indifference to the massacre of more than thirty thousand people in Gaza.
With the added fear of a new Nakba or forced evacuation, in the shadow of the drums of war that already resonate in Europe itself. Even in such a strong US ally as Singapore, former President Halimah Yacob has warned of the need to be “on the side of humanity.”
The accusations of double standards made daily against Washington and Brussels, in at least three of the five continents – for their belligerence in Ukraine and their passivity when not complicity in Palestine – are being taken advantage of by China to give credibility to its “peaceful rise” and “constructive” and to win allies.
Not only in Asia, Africa or Latin America, but also in the Middle East, Western Asia from the Asian point of view. There, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two latest additions to the BRICS group, where Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa also stand out.
All this while the Abraham Accords, of unconditional peace with Israel, put the Arab monarchies that signed them in a bind. Although they have not been blown up – at least not yet – an incorporation of Saudi Arabia is postponed sine die.
While the EU considers Hamas a “terrorist organization”, it maintains offices in Russia, Turkey and Malaysia, among other countries. A dozen years ago, the leadership of Hamas – wandering like that of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in its day – had to leave Damascus due to its alignment with other Islamist militias (supported in a more or less covert manner by the United States). United States, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, several Arab monarchies and even Israel).
The evidence of their failure in their attempt to oust Bashar al-Assad from Syria has repaired some bridges between the pro-Russian secularist dictator and Hamas. In the same way that it would have allowed communication between Hamas and Iran, despite the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood – the Sunni parent of Hamas – are staunch enemies of the Shiite regime in Tehran.
Envoy Wang met in the West Bank with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al Maliki and in West Jerusalem with lower-ranking representatives of the Israeli government. The latter view with much less sympathy the five-point plan proposed by Beijing a few months ago, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and a concrete calendar for the coexistence of two free and sovereign states in the former British and Ottoman Palestine.
“All lives are worth the same and the inability to put an end to this disaster is a tragedy for humanity and a shame for civilization,” the head of Chinese diplomacy proclaimed a few days ago. “The historical injustice against Palestinian national rights cannot be carried over from generation to generation,” concluded Wang Yi, “this vicious circle must be broken.”
Certainly, a year ago Chinese diplomacy was able to sit at the table and reach an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish relations (it is the first client of both countries). But in this case its pressure capacity is much more limited. The ball is in Joe Biden’s court.
