Israel-Gaza war: why China is seen as indispensable to global security

China’s refusal to condemn Hamas and stated neutrality have won it diplomatic points across the Muslim world and raised its standing in the Middle East. This has positioned China to advocate for peace in a turbulent region

Richard Heydarian

Published: 5:30am, 20 Oct 2023

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“As a friend to both Israel and Palestine, what we hope to see is the two countries living together in peace … The key to achieving that lies in the realisation of the two-state solution and establishment of an independent state of Palestine,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said amid the latest round of clashes between Israel and Hamas.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “China believes that the historical injustices against Palestine have lasted for more than half a century and cannot go on”. Accordingly, he emphasised that “China is ready to work with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to continue supporting the Palestinians’ just cause of restoring their national rights”.

China’s stance has won it diplomatic points across the Muslim world, where top leaders have lamented the West’s seeming neglect of Palestinian rights and lives.

Understandably, China’s broadly neutral position received criticism from Israel and its Western allies, who have demanded categorical support for their ongoing military operations against the Hamas militant group in Gaza.

Recognising Beijing’s growing influence, both the United States and Israel have nevertheless sought China’s assistance to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East. By all indications, China is now in position to advocate for peace in one of the most vital and turbulent regions of the world. Accordingly, China is cementing its position as one of the pillars of the Global South amid the decline of the West as the ultimate arbiter of international order.

China’s diplomatic foray into the Middle East is no trivial matter. In geopolitical terms, the region represents the most intractable puzzle: enmities are ancient, imperial ambitions run deep and violent rivalries tend to be the norm. Add to this the region’s role as the top global supplier of oil and gas.

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The Middle East has also suffered a succession of external military interventions in its contemporary history, beginning from the first Gulf War in 1991 to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq a decade later. That is not to mention the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, the constant threat of armed confrontation with Iran and the decade-long counterterrorism operations from the Waziristan region in Pakistan to Yemen and all the way to the Horn of Africa.

From its 2003 invasion of Iraq to its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US has at times operated above and in defiance of international law. No wonder, then, that it is unpopular in parts of the Middle East, including in Nato-allied nations such as Turkey.

In fact, the US has openly defied multiple international court rulings. Washington has gone so far as sanctioning top judges at the International Criminal Court who attempted to investigate alleged misconduct by US soldiers, as well as ignoring an International Court of Justice ruling which questioned Washington’s economic sanctions imposed on Iran.

This is why the West’s invocation of a “rules-based international order” can often meet with profound scepticism across the developing world, especially in the Middle East. In contrast, China is sometimes seen as a constructive player by postcolonial nations who see it as not only a key trade partner and source of infrastructure investments but also a neutral peacemaker.

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China’s stance on the latest round of violence in the Middle East, therefore, is relevant on three levels. To begin with, it tracks President Xi Jinping’s position on how his country represents “a new option for nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence” as well as the value of “Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to the problems facing mankind”.

Accordingly, the Chinese leader has openly welcomed the opportunity for his country to lead the reform of the global governance system. The upshot is a whole host of consequential projects, including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, which seek to create a post-Western global order.

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Second, China has a special interest in the Middle East. On one hand, the region is a vital supplier of energy, accounting for more than 50 per cent of China’s total oil imports as of 2022. Geographically, the region – especially Iran, which connects Central Asia to the Arab world – is indispensable to the realisation of a transcontinental network of projects.

Finally, China has shown itself to be an effective broker in the Middle East, beginning with its mediation of the detente between regional heavyweights of Iran and Saudi Arabia. This has inspired other reconciliation efforts between Tehran and other Arab nations, raising hopes of a Beijing-backed summit between Iran and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that includes all the littoral states for the first time in recent memory.

No wonder that many major parties see China as a vital actor in potentially diffusing the latest round of tensions in the Middle East. Unlike the US, which has squarely stood by Israel throughout the decades, China has managed to build robust relations with all sides of the conflict through trade and diplomacy. As a result, not only Israel’s ambassador to Beijing Irit Ben-Abba but also US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have sought China’s assistance to reach out to other key players, most notably Iran, to help prevent a wider regional conflict.

It remains to be seen if China can successfully nudge key players towards de-escalation and, in the long run, peaceful settlement of the Palestine-Israel conflict. What is clear, however, is that it has become an increasingly indispensable player to not only peace in the Middle East – a most vital region – but also global security in the 21st century.

Richard Heydarian is a Manila-based academic and author of Asia’s New Battlefield: US, China and the Struggle for Western Pacific, and the forthcoming Duterte’s Rise