Over the years, China has taken an increasingly larger role in a number of international peacekeeping and peacemaking tasks. However, these have yet to be appreciated by the United States and the West, which often view China’s efforts as self-interested behavior to promote its geopolitical interests. More cynically, they allege that China’s actions are to weaken the West’s global influence and drive a wedge between Western countries and other countries.
As China’s international status and influence continue to rise, China’s role as a peacemaker is becoming increasingly prominent. In her book Upstart: How China Became a Great Power (2024) Oriana Skylar Mastro chronicled many high-profile cases of China’s efforts to promote peace globally.
In recent years, regional wars have broken out in rapid succession, seriously damaging global economic development, food supply, energy safety and the stability of supply chains. The impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the struggle between Palestine and Israel are particularly pernicious, with the potential spillover posing a more terrifying threat to global peace and development.
Most countries worldwide are impatient to end both wars as soon as possible. However, the US and most other Western countries are stakeholders in these two wars and are unwilling or unable to bring them to an end. To a considerable extent, they could even be denounced as the initiators and strategic beneficiaries of the wars. In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US and the West have supported or connived in Israel’s large-scale killings and the humanitarian disasters in the Gaza region.
Today, except for China, all major powers in the world are involved in the vortex of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. More significantly, the behavior of the US in recent years has diminished its moral stature to such an extent that even if the US wants peace, its qualification as a peacemaker has been drastically reduced. It is unrealistic to expect it to play the role of a peacemaker. For this reason, many countries, including a few Western countries, naturally hope that China, as an internationally influential power, can act as a peacemaker. In response to the international community’s expectations, China actively plays a role in promoting peace in the Russia-Ukraine and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts.
China has adopted different strategies to promote an end to these two conflicts. In the former, China acted as a “neutral party” or a “non-stakeholder” to mediate, seeking interlocutors in Russia, Ukraine, Western countries, the Global South countries and even the Vatican. Regarding the latter, China has chosen to work with the international community to exert political and moral pressure on Israel and the US.
Indeed, China’s efforts alone will not be enough to end these two severe crises immediately, but it will still play an indispensable role in the long haul. After all, as shown in history, all wars will eventually end in peaceful negotiations. Even though the factors currently impeding political talks between the warring parties are still insuperable, and some previous efforts to promote dialogue have been in vain, some glimmers of peace have emerged recently, and China’s role as a peacemaker will become increasingly important and indispensable.
In response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Wang Yi expounded: “China has always upheld an objective and fair stance and insisted on promoting peace and talks. President Xi Jinping personally communicated in depth with leaders of various countries, including Russia and Ukraine. China has issued a special announcement about this. We have released position documents and sent special envoys many times to mediate. Everything we do points to one goal: to pave the way for peace talks and build bridges to end the war.” On Feb 24, 2023, China issued the document China’s Position on the Political Resolution of the Ukraine Crisis, putting forward 12 propositions, including respecting the sovereignty of all countries, abandoning the Cold War mentality, ceasefire, ending the war, starting peace talks, stopping unilateral sanctions, and promoting post-war reconstruction. The core is to persuade peace and encourage negotiations.
On May 23, Wang met with Celso Amorim, chief adviser to the president of Brazil, in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on promoting a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis and calling for cooling the situation. Consensus was reached on six points. China and Brazil called on all parties to abide by the “three principles” of de-escalating the situation: The battlefield should not spill over, the war should not escalate, and all parties should not resort to fighting. China and Brazil believe dialogue and negotiation are the only feasible way to resolve the Ukraine crisis. All parties should create conditions for the resumption of direct dialogue and promote de-escalation until a comprehensive ceasefire is reached. China and Brazil also support the timely convening of an international peace conference recognized by Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation by all parties and fair discussion of all peace plans.
Regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Wang pointed out: “China firmly supports the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and has always been committed to a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue. We support Palestine becoming a full member of the United Nations and call on individual Security Council Members to stop setting up obstacles. We advocate convening a larger, more authoritative, and more effective international peace conference to formulate a roadmap and timetable for implementing the ‘two-state solution’. We advocate that the Palestinians and Israelis resume peace talks soon and ultimately realize the peaceful coexistence of the two countries of Palestine and Israel and the harmonious coexistence of the Arab and Jewish peoples. China will continue to work with the international community to restore peace, work hard to save lives, and uphold justice.” On July 23, more than a dozen Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, signed the Beijing Declaration in Beijing, vowing to form an interim coalition government. This was the second meeting that representatives of Hamas and Fatah held in Beijing this year, and the Chinese government also facilitated the first meeting. The document calls for the formation of a Palestinian unity government to oversee the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and lay the groundwork for eventual elections. China, Russia, and other critical regional countries would jointly supervise the implementation of the Beijing Declaration to ensure its actual realization. To end the current conflict, China proposes a “three-step approach”. The first step is to secure a comprehensive, lasting, and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible and ensure access to humanitarian assistance and rescue. The second step is to uphold the principle of “Palestinians governing Palestine” and work together to attain post-war governance in Gaza. The third step is to promote Palestine to become a full member of the UN and start implementing the “two-state solution”. China also supports convening a more significant, authoritative, and influential international peace conference and formulating a timetable and road map for peace.
The international community appreciates China’s fair positions on the two conflicts as they embody mainstream global public opinion. The essence of the two plans has been incorporated in relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council. However, regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the two countries have antithetical positions on how to end the conflict, and it will be difficult to bridge the chasm in the short term. At the same time, the US and its allies have no intention of ending the conflict. Instead, they continue to provide Ukraine with more advanced weapons and even allow Ukraine to use them on Russian soil. It will not be palatable to them to be defeated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Therefore, even if Russia and Ukraine intend to end the war, there are insurmountable obstacles to launching peace negotiations in the short term.
Although the road to ending the two conflicts is still long and tortuous, the dawn of peace has come. The international community will increasingly recognize and value China’s role as a peacemaker
Palestinian factions have long been divided over core issues such as how the Palestinian government should be formed, their views on the boundaries of their homeland, and their approach to Israel, making a reconciliation deal nearly impossible. To further complicate matters, each faction has different international backers, and the conflicting interests of those countries have further exacerbated the internal Palestinian disputes. From this perspective, the Beijing Declaration is indeed a milestone because it represents the convergence of the positions of various Palestinian factions on how to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Unsurprisingly, however, Israel strongly condemned and categorically rejected the Beijing Declaration. Under such circumstances, it will be tough to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict soon.
Politicians, experts, and media in the US and the West are very dismissive of China’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts. They chide China for putting forward its positions and plans, vilifying them as moves to enhance China’s moral status and political prestige in the world rather than solving problems. They are skeptical of China as a “neutral” party. More importantly, they believe that China has limited influence or ability to change the behavior of Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the US through reward and punishment. Nonetheless, all parties also admit that war-torn places, especially Gaza and Ukraine, need to carry out mammoth post-war reconstruction work involving huge costs. China, widely depicted as an “infrastructure maniac”, has an indispensable role to play there. Moreover, China enjoys solid economic connections with the warring parties. Hence, it has a certain degree of influence on their behavior.
Admittedly, the skeptical views of the US and the West are not unreasonable, but they ignore the positive role that China can play in creating peace. Today, the desire of all parties to end the two conflicts as soon as possible is increasing. Both Ukraine and Russia have suffered huge losses due to the war, and it is in their interest to end the war as soon as possible. The US and the West have also realized that Russia will not collapse because of the war, but continuing the war will push Russia ever closer to China. War-weariness within Western countries is rising. Calls to cut aid to Ukraine are getting louder. The US and some of its Western allies have no appetite to stop Israel’s mass killings in Gaza or push for the “two-state solution”. This has led to political isolation and moral crisis in the US and the West. If the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues, the US and the West will have to pay an increasingly high price. An early end to the conflict is in their fundamental interests. In an environment where more and more countries hope to end the two conflicts as soon as possible, the international community naturally hopes that China will play a more critical role in promoting peace talks. The US and the West also clearly know that China has more political and moral influence on Russia and Palestine than the US and the West.
Although China does not have a decisive influence on the behavior of the warring parties, it can help produce a political atmosphere and international pressure conducive to promoting dialogue and negotiation between the parties. Due to China’s global efforts, there are growing worldwide calls for a ceasefire agreement as soon as possible, which has put pressure on all warring parties. Behind the Beijing Declaration is China’s successful efforts to promote Palestinian internal unity, enhance Palestine’s international legitimacy, and change the balance of power in the Middle East, thereby exerting more significant international pressure on Israel and the US.
China’s efforts to promote peace talks have achieved some early results. Dmytro Kuleba, then Ukrainian foreign minister, came to Beijing in July to discuss ways to end the conflict. This shows that Ukraine is anxious to end the conflict and attaches great importance to China’s role in this process. Likewise, the US has softened its stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The US has begun to worry that it would suffer further strategic losses due to its excessive favoritism to Israel, so it began to take remedial measures. In March, Resolution 2728, proposed by the 10 nonpermanent members of the UN Security Council, was adopted with a 14-to-0 vote (the US abstained), calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan. The resolution also called for the immediate release of hostages and ensuring humanitarian aid access to Gaza. The abstention of the US is unprecedented and has drawn the fury of Israel. Later, the US devised a “final plan” for a ceasefire.
Although the road to ending the two conflicts is still long and tortuous, the dawn of peace has come. The international community will increasingly recognize and value China’s role as a peacemaker.
The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a consultant for the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
