HONG KONG/BEIJING/SINGAPORE. — When China announced a surprise deal restoring ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran this year, it signaled Beijing’s desire to be a diplomatic heavyweight in the Middle East.
The crisis in Israel and Gaza threatens to expose the limits of that ambition.
After the March Saudi-Iran agreement, which China brokered, Chinese media hailed Beijing’s rising profile in a region long dominated by Washington. Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, said the country would continue to play a constructive role in handling global “hotspot issues.”
But after the killings of more than 900 Israelis in coordinated assaults by the Islamic group Hamas, China’s response was muted.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman repeatedly stopped short of condemning Hamas, instead calling for de-escalation and for Israel and Palestine to pursue a “two-state solution” for an independent Palestine. China’s leader Xi Jinping has been silent on the issue.
“Certainly, it does poke a hole in the type of propaganda … of China being this kind of massive player in the Middle East,” said Bill Figueroa, an assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and an expert on China-Middle East relations.
China’s neutrality has drawn criticism from US and Israeli officials, with some saying it undermines Beijing’s claims to be an unbiased peace broker in the region.
That should not come as a surprise, say analysts. Chinese diplomacy has long been risk-averse, and the spiraling conflict between Israel and Hamas puts its diplomats in a difficult spot, given China’s historic support for the Palestinians and its rivalry with the United States.
“We have made it clear that China is highly concerned about the continued escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and urges all parties concerned to immediately cease fire and stop fighting. China is willing to maintain communication with all parties and make unremitting efforts for peace and stability in the Middle East,” Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
Since the end of China’s nearly three years of COVID lockdowns, Xi has launched a diplomatic push aimed at countering the United States and its allies, who he says seek to contain and suppress his country.
Beijing has deepened alliances with non-Western-led multilateral groups such as the BRICS bloc of nations while hewing more closely to Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine and strengthening ties with countries in the Middle East and the Global South.
Although there is a chance to build on its Iran-Saudi success, China is unlikely to engage deeply in the current crisis.
One factor is a longstanding policy of non-interference that can sometimes clash with China’s aim of acting as a great power on the global stage.
