n a meeting room in Baku, far from the rubble of Gaza and the Jewish settlements that continue to expand in the West Bank, China's top diplomat launched one of Beijing's strongest rebukes against Israel. Facing Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Minister Wang Yi demanded that the Israeli government stop and reverse the "forced establishment" of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. He then reiterated a common expression in Chinese diplomatic rhetoric: the Palestinian issue represents "the greatest historical injustice of this century."
The meeting took place in Azerbaijan during an Asian security summit where Wang attended as a special representative of President Xi Jinping. The Israeli version of the conversation was quite different. Herzog emphasized the importance of the trade relations between both countries and the threats posed by Iran and its armed allies in the Middle East.
"I emphasized Israel's desire to achieve peace in the region, along with the strategic threats to our security, mainly from Iran and its affiliated terrorist groups," he wrote in X, avoiding mentioning the Chinese criticisms of the settlements.
Two narratives from the same meeting reflecting the growing political distance between two countries that maintain significant economic ties. According to Wang, China is willing to collaborate with the international community for the parties to resume dialogue and "seek a political solution to the conflict."
China aims to present itself as the power capable of advocating for a political solution in contrast to a United States it considers too aligned with Israel. Its proposal is based on a familiar formula: two independent states, with a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 war borders and East Jerusalem as the capital.
But behind this position, there is also a geopolitical calculation. The Middle East has become another stage for the competition between Beijing and Washington. The Asian giant needs stability to protect its energy supplies, investments, and commercial routes connecting Asia to Europe. Additionally, the Palestinian cause allows China to approach the Arab world and numerous countries in the so-called Global South, where U.S. military support for Israel has generated deep rejection.
In March 2023, Beijing managed to bring Saudi Arabia and Iran together in the Chinese capital to announce the reestablishment of diplomatic relations broken since 2016. It was one of Xi Jinping's major international successes and a demonstration that China could intervene in regional disputes traditionally dominated by Washington. Since then, it has tried to apply that model to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, albeit without success.
Its most ambitious initiative came in the summer of 2024 when representatives of 14 Palestinian factions, including historically rival Hamas and Al Fatah, met in the Chinese capital. After several days of negotiations, they signed the so-called Beijing Declaration, which envisioned the formation of a provisional national reconciliation government tasked with administering Gaza after the war and preparing for reconstruction. Wang Yi presented the agreement as a historic step towards Palestinian unity. However, that reconciliation never materialized.
While Beijing has become one of the main diplomatic supporters of the Palestinian cause, over the past three decades it has also been one of Israel's major trading partners. Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1992, bilateral trade has grown from just $50 million to around $25 billion in 2022, making China Israel's largest trading partner in Asia.
Chinese companies have invested billions in Israeli technology, infrastructure, and food. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu mainly sells to the world's second-largest economy electronic equipment, industrial machinery, chemicals, and fertilizers. The Gaza war has cooled political relations, but neither government seems willing to sever their commercial ties.
In China, on platforms like Weibo (similar to X), there are numerous posts denouncing the destruction in Gaza and labeling the Israeli massacre in Gaza as "genocide." Many internet users compare Palestinian suffering to China's historical humiliations by foreign powers. Others interpret the war as an example of U.S. hegemony and Western double standards on human rights.