China Seizes On Gaza Crisis To Counter U.S. Human Rights Attacks

China’s position as head of the United Nations Security Council gives it a powerful perch to help ease the bloodshed in the Middle East. So far, its strategy appears more focused on scoring points in its geopolitical battle with the U.S. 

Beijing, which has long played an observer role in Middle East peace efforts, has used the the rotating presidency of the Security Council to spotlight Washington’s reluctance to condemn Israel. Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the U.S. to “shoulder its due responsibilities,” while a ministry spokesman said Washington “only seeks selfish interests.”

The attacks underscored how quickly any international dispute, including the decades-old stalemate over the Gaza Strip, can become entangled in the strategic struggle between the U.S. and China. For Beijing, the crisis provides an opportunity to counter President Joe Biden’s criticism of the treatment of its own Muslim minority in the region of Xinjiang.

Still, Beijing’s historical support for the Palestinian cause and Israeli’s reliance on U.S. backing complicates its efforts to play a serious mediating role. In 2013, Xi sought unsuccessfully to broker a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing.
“The Arab world and Islamic countries all appreciated China’s commitment to international rules and equity and justice,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news briefing Wednesday in Beijing. He urged the U.S. to support “de-escalation, rebuilding trust and a political settlement.”A “four-point proposal” that Wang presented to the UN on Sunday, which was similar to other mediation plans put forward by China over the years, has so far failed to entice Israel. And by championing the cause of Israeli’s critics -- and using the crisis to attack the U.S. -- Beijing risked undercutting its value as a more neutral mediator.

The fight, however, does serve an immediate purpose for China: Countering calls for international sanctions and a boycott of the Winter Olympics next year in Beijing over its domestic human rights policies. Chinese diplomats have sought to highlight what they see as Western hypocrisy as part of a broader effort to challenge “U.S. discourse hegemony.”

The U.S., European Union and U.K. have placed sanctions on Chinese officials and goods over alleged human-rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, which the Biden administration has said amounts to genocide. China denies any forced labor, calling it the “biggest lie of the century,” and says its policies are lifting the region out of poverty, boosting the economy and countering extremism.

China is signaling support to Arab nations that have generally backed its practices in Xinjiang, one Western diplomat in Beijing said. Having broad support from these countries is helpful at a time when China faces a barrage of criticism from abroad, the diplomat said.

At the same time, that won’t help much in resolving the broader conflict between Israel and Palestine.