palestinian president to visit china next week

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Palestinian president to visit China next week

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an "old and good friend of the Chinese people", he added.

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights."

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there -- efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to "work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue".

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a "two-state solution".

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice."

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Palestinian president to visit China next week

Beijing (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Issued on: 09/06/2023 - 11:08 Modified: 09/06/2023 - 11:06

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an "old and good friend of the Chinese people", he added.

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights."

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there -- efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to "work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue".

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a "two-state solution".

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice."

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China: palestinian president mahmud abbas to visit next week.

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• China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang in April told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations

BEIJING: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China said it was ready to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. “At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang in April told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations. The separate phone calls between Qin and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats came as Beijing positions itself as a regional mediator. Qin encouraged “steps to resume peace talks” and said that “China is ready to provide convenience for this,” in a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Xinhua reported. And Qin told Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency. In both calls Qin emphasised China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution.” “President Abbas is an old and good friend of the Chinese people,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later on Friday. “He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly,” he added. “The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice.” China has been on a recent diplomatic offensive, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia — rivals in a region where the United States for decades has been the main powerbroker. Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

80% of Palestinians welcome Chinese offer to mediate with Israel, US seen as least favorite option

China to promote early, proper settlement of Palestinian issue amid escalation of violence

Students erect pro-palestinian camp at ireland’s trinity college.

DUBLIN: Students at Trinity College Dublin protesting Israel’s war in Gaza have built an encampment that forced the university to restrict campus access on Saturday and close the Book of Kells exhibition, one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions. The camp was set up late on Friday after Trinity College’s students’ union said it had been fined 214,000 euros ($230,000) by the university for financial losses incurred due to protests in recent months not exclusively regarding the war in Gaza. Students’ union President Laszlo Molnarfia posted a photograph of benches piled up in front of the entrance to the building where the Book of Kells is housed on the X social media platform on Friday. The illuminated manuscript book was created by Celtic monks in about 800 A.D.. “The Book of Kells is now closed indefinitely,” he said in the post. Trinity College said it had restricted access to the campus to students, staff and residents to ensure safety and that the Book of Kells exhibition would be closed on Saturday. Similar to the student occupations sweeping US campuses, protesters at Trinity College are demanding that Ireland’s oldest university cut ties with Israeli universities and divest from companies with ties to Israel. Protests at universities elsewhere have included Australia and Canada. In a statement last week, the head of the university, Linda Doyle, said Trinity College’s was reviewing  its investments in a portfolio of companies and that decisions on whether to work with Israeli institutions rested with individual academics. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s seven-month-old assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Ireland has long been a champion of Palestinian rights, and the government has pledged to formally recognize Palestine as a state soon. ($1 = 0.9295 euros)

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India opposition social media chief arrested over doctored video.

• Congress party’s Arun Reddy was detained in connection with the edited footage, showing Interior minister Amit Shah
• Shah is often referred to as the second-most powerful man in India after Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Indian police said Saturday they had arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over accusations he doctored a widely shared video during an ongoing national election.

The Congress party’s Arun Reddy was detained late Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister Amit Shah vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians.

Shah is often referred to as the second-most powerful man in India after Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the pair have been close political allies for decades.

Reddy “was arrested yesterday on investigation about... a doctored video of the home minister,” deputy commissioner of Delhi police Hemant Tiwari told AFP.

“We produced him in the court and he is in police custody.”

Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed confirmed Reddy’s arrest to AFP but denied he was responsible for creating or publishing the clip.

“He is not involved in any doctored video. We are supporting him,” she said.

Authorities seized Reddy’s electronic devices for forensic verification, the Indian Express newspaper reported Saturday, quoting an unnamed police officer who accused Reddy of having “cropped and edited” the video.

Shah has been campaigning on behalf of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is widely expected to win a third term when India’s six-week election concludes next month.

Analysts have long expected Modi to triumph against a fractious alliance of Congress and more than two dozen parties that have yet to name a candidate for prime minister.

His prospects have been further bolstered by several criminal investigations into his opponents and a tax investigation this year that froze Congress’s bank accounts.

Opposition figures and human rights organizations have accused Modi’s government of orchestrating the probes to weaken rivals.

Modi’s government remains widely popular a decade after coming to power, in large part due to its positioning of the nation’s majority Hindu faith at the center of its politics despite India’s officially secular constitution.

That in turn has left India’s 220 million-strong Muslim community feeling threatened by the rise of Hindu nationalist fervor.

Since voting began last month, both Modi and Shah have stepped up campaign rhetoric on India’s principal religious divide in an effort to rally voters.

In the original campaign speech at the center of the police investigation against Reddy, Shah vows to end affirmative action measures for Muslims established in the southern state of Telangana.

Modi last month used a campaign rally to refer to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children,” prompting condemnation and an official complaint to election authorities by Congress.

But the prime minister has not been sanctioned for his remarks despite election rules prohibiting campaigning on “communal feelings” such as religion, prompting frustration from the opposition camp.

“Where is the election commission when the Prime Minister is spewing hate every day?” Shama said.

India’s foreign minister rejects Biden’s ‘xenophobia’ comment

NEW DELHI: Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar rejected US President Joe Biden’s comment that “xenophobia” was hobbling the South Asian nation’s economic growth, The Economic Times reported on Saturday. Jaishankar said at a round table hosted by the newspaper on Friday that India’s economy “is not faltering” and that it has historically been a society that is very open. “That’s why we have the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), which is to open up doors for people who are in trouble ... I think we should be open to people who have the need to come to India, who have a claim to come to India,” Jaishankar said, referring to a recent law that allows immigrants who have fled persecution from neighboring countries to become citizens. Earlier this week, Biden had said “xenophobia” in China, Japan and India was holding back growth in the respective economies as he argued migration has been good for the US economy. “One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast last month that growth in Asia’s three largest economies would slow in 2024 from the previous year. The IMF also forecast that the US economy would grow 2.7 percent, slightly brisker than its 2.5 percent rate last year. Many economists attribute the upbeat forecasts partly to migrants expanding the country’s labor force.

Canada arrests three Indians over killing of Sikh activist

• The murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar plunged Canada, India into a serious diplomatic crisis last fall
• Nijjar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997, advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan

VANCOUVER: Canadian police on Friday arrested three men over the killing last year in Vancouver of a Sikh separatist, whose death has been linked to the Indian government.

The murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar plunged Canada and India into a serious diplomatic crisis last fall after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Indian government involvement in the homicide.

India dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and responded furiously, briefly curbing visas for Canadians and forcing Ottawa to withdraw diplomats.

Three Indian nationals, two aged 22 and one aged 28, were arrested Friday and charged with first degree murder and conspiracy charges. They are accused of being the shooter, driver and lookout on the day Nijjar was killed.

They were arrested by police in Edmonton, in the neighboring province of Alberta, where they reside, and are being held pending further proceedings.

All had been in Canada for between three and five years, police said at a news conference.

“This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide,” said Mandeep Mooker of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s homicide investigations team.

Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.

He was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

On June 18, 2023, he was shot dead by masked assailants in the parking lot of the Sikh temple he led in suburban Vancouver.

Trudeau announced several months later that Canada had “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the killing and expelled an Indian official, spurring the diplomatic tit-for-tat with New Delhi.

Mooker said Canadian police are still investigating the ties of the suspects, “if any, to the Indian government.”

“It is a bit of a sigh of relief that the investigation is moving forward,” Moninder Singh, a close friend of Nijjar, told AFP.

“It is ultimately India who is responsible and hiring individuals to assassinate Sikh leaders in foreign countries,” said Singh, spokesperson for the British Columbia Council of Gurdwaras.

In November, the US Justice Department charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on American soil.

Prosecutors said in unsealed court documents that an Indian government official was also involved in the planning.

The shock allegations came after US President Joe Biden hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a rare state visit, as Washington seeks closer ties with India against China’s growing influence.

US intelligence agencies have assessed that the plot on American soil was approved by India’s top spy official at the time, Samant Goel, The Washington Post reported this week.

Canada is home to some 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal minority calling for an independent state of Khalistan.

Philippine bishops instruct flock to pray for rain, heat relief

• Rising temperatures have forced the government to shut down tens of thousands of schools over the past week
• Increased demand has also stressed the country’s already strained power supply

MANILA: Catholic bishops in the Philippines are pitching in to seek divine relief from the extreme heatwave scorching the country, instructing their flock to recite special prayers for rain and lower temperatures. Rising temperatures have forced the government to shut down tens of thousands of schools over the past week, while increased demand has stressed the country’s already strained power supply. A widespread El Nino drought that began early this year is compounding the problem, ruining 5.9 billion pesos ($103 million) worth of farm produce so far according to the Department of Agriculture. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued an “Oratio Imperata,” instructing parishes in the mainly Catholic nation to recite a prayer for deliverance from calamities during masses, according to the text seen by AFP on Saturday. “We humbly ask you to grant us relief from the extreme heat that besets your people at this time, disrupting their activities and threatening their lives and livelihood,” the prayer read. “Send us rain to replenish our depleting water sources, to irrigate our fields, to stave off water and power shortages and to provide water for our daily needs.” A record-high 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in the capital Manila on April 27, forcing the closure of more than 47,000 schools for two days. Nearly 8,000 schools remained shuttered as of Friday, the education department said, while the highest temperature in the country was recorded at 38.2C on the island of Mindoro south of the capital.

Philippine students are told to stay home as Southeast Asia swelters in prolonged heat wave

Extreme heat shuts schools for millions, widening learning gaps worldwide

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Palestinian president to visit china next week.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said on Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia - rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an "old and good friend of the Chinese people", he added.

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights."

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there - efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to "work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue".

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a "two-state solution".

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice."

• Mahmud Abbas

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Palestinian president to visit China from June 13

Beijing has expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

BEIJING: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said on Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia - rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday.

“He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an “old and good friend of the Chinese people”, he added.

“China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there - efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to “work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue”.

Blinken's comments

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution”.

“The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice.”

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Palestinian president to visit China next week

BEIJING, June 9, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will  make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China  expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the  restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a  region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of  Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,"  foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully  embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have  traditionally been friendly," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular  briefing later.

Abbas is an "old and good friend of the Chinese people", he added.

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people  to restore their legitimate national rights."

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long- standing US influence there -- efforts that have drawn rebukes from  Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw  him meet with Abbas and pledge to "work for an early, just and durable  solution to the Palestinian issue".

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said  Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing,  striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension,  urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects  for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian  counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua  reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing  supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state  news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of  implementing a "two-state solution".

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on  peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and  justice."

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China says Palestinian president to visit next week

Afp , friday 9 jun 2023.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China said it was ready to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the state of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang in April told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations.

The separate phone calls between Qin and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats came as Beijing positions itself as a regional mediator.

Qin encouraged "steps to resume peace talks" and said that "China is ready to provide convenience for this", in a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a "two-state solution".

"President Abbas is an old and good friend of the Chinese people," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later on Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly," he added.

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice."

China has been on a recent diplomatic offensive, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a region where the United States for decades has been the main powerbroker.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

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Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in regional conflicts in the Middle East.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit China next week at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.

RELATED: China Voices Concern Over Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, will pay a state visit to China from June 13-16," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced in an official statement.

The Chinese government, which has held separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian diplomats, has expressed its willingness to support Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Wang Wenbin, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's Information Department, said Abbas "is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of good relations between China and Palestine, which have traditionally been friendly." 

China stands ready to work with Palestine to follow through on the common understandings of leaders of the two countries and take the China-Palestine traditional friendship to new heights: Chinese FM https://t.co/ZmeEXpwBG9 pic.twitter.com/eBxmXsBbEW — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) June 9, 2023

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights," Wang Wenbin added at a briefing today, Friday.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in regional conflicts in the Middle East. In March, it brokered the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, long-time rivals in the Persian Gulf.

According to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the Chinese platform for peace negotiations is based on the so-called "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Today's Paper | May 04, 2024

Palestinian president to visit china next week.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said on Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia — rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine, Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday.

“He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an “old and good friend of the Chinese people”, he added. “China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there — efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to “work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue”.

And during a trip to Riyadh this week , US State Secretary Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations , Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls, Qin emphasised China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution”.

“The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice. “

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Palestinian president to visit china next week.

https://arab.news/67kk5

• China has expressed readiness to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian talks
• Beijing has recently positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East

BEIJING: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

“He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an “old and good friend of the Chinese people,” he added.

“China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there — efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to “work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue.”

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution.”

“The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice.”

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Hamas negotiators arrive in egypt for gaza truce talks: media.

• A top Hamas official earlier accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to derail a proposed Gaza truce

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories/CAIRO: A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza, Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera News reported.

Al-Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence services, quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying that “there is significant progress in the negotiations” between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, and that the Egyptian mediators have “reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention.”

A top Hamas official earlier accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of trying to derail a proposed Gaza truce and hostage release deal with his threats to keep fighting the Palestinian militant group.

“Netanyahu was the obstructionist of all previous rounds of dialogue... and it is clear that he still is,” senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said by telephone.

Foreign mediators have waited for a Hamas response to a proposal to halt the fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, which its chief Ismail Haniyeh has said the group was considering in a “positive spirit.”

A major stumbling block has been that, while Hamas has demanded a lasting ceasefire, Netanyahu has vowed to crush its remaining fighters in the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.

The hawkish prime minister has insisted he will send ground troops into Rafah, despite strong concerns voiced by UN agencies and ally Washington for the safety of the 1.2 million civilians inside the city.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was “deeply concerned that a full-scale military operation in Rafah... could lead to a bloodbath.”

“The broken health system would not be able to cope with a surge in casualties and deaths that a Rafah incursion would cause,” an agency statement said.

Badran charged that Netanyahu’s insistence on attacking Rafah was calculated to “thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement” in the negotiations brokered by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators.

Israeli air strikes killed several more people in Rafah overnight, Palestinian medics and the civil defense agency said.

One bereaved resident, Sanaa Zoorob, said her sister and six of her nieces and nephews were killed.

Two of the children “were found in pieces in their mother’s embrace,” Zoorob said, appealing for “a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal from Gaza.”

The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also took some 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza.

The army says 35 of them are dead, including 49-year-old Dror Or, a resident of the badly hit kibbutz Beeri, whose death was confirmed by authorities on Friday.

Israel’s devastating retaliatory campaign has killed at least 34,622 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Israel has weathered an international backlash over the spiralling death toll.

Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks were more muted Friday after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.

But similar demonstrations have spread to campuses in Britain, France, Mexico, Australia and elsewhere.

Turkiye announced on Thursday that it was suspending all trade with Israel, valued by the government at $9.5 billion a year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the move was intended to “force Israel to agree to a ceasefire and increase the amount of humanitarian aid to enter” Gaza.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have carried out months of attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea in a costly blow to maritime trade, said they would extend their attacks on Israel-bound shipping to the Mediterranean “immediately.”

Israel’s siege has pushed many of Gaza’s 2.4 million people to the brink of famine.

US pressure has prompted Israel to facilitate more aid deliveries to Gaza, including through the reopened Erez crossing that leads directly into the hardest-hit north.

Food availability has improved “a little bit,” said the World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn.

But he warned that the threat of famine had “absolutely not” gone away.

Five Israeli human rights groups that took Israel to court over restrictions on aid to war-torn Gaza said the state’s insistence that it has met its obligations was “incomprehensible.”

The government had told the supreme court that the steps it had taken went “above and beyond” its obligations under international law.

Gisha and four other Israeli non-profit organizations retorted that the shortages evident inside Gaza indicated “the respondents are not meeting their obligations, not to the required extent nor at the necessary speed.”

The US-based charity World Central Kitchen resumed operations this week, after suspending them in the aftermath of Israeli drone strikes that killed seven of its staff as they unloaded aid in Gaza on April 1.

The group’s kitchen manager Zakria Yahya Abukuwaik said: “We realized after the kitchen closed that many mouths were left hungry.”

World Central Kitchen was involved in an effort earlier this year to establish a new maritime aid corridor to Gaza from Cyprus to help compensate for dwindling deliveries by land from Israel.

The project suffered a new blow Friday when the US military announced high winds had forced troops working to assemble a temporary aid pier off the Gaza coast to relocate to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

“The partially built pier and military vessels involved in its construction have moved to the Port of Ashdod, where assembly will continue, and will be completed prior to the emplacement of the pier in its intended location when sea states subside,” US Central Command said in a statement.

Several Arab and Western governments have also airdropped aid into northern Gaza. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Basal said one person was killed and several injured when they were hit by falling pallets.

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Britain sanctions Israeli groups, individuals for violence in West Bank

Israel confirms death of hostage held in Gaza

Un official warns famine in northern gaza is already ‘full-blown’.

• Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas
• There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza

WASHINGTON: A top UN official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. Cindy McCain, the American director of the UN World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine. “It’s horror,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”

She said a ceasefire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings. The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said earlier this year that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it this month. The next update will not come before this summer. One of the US Agency for International Development’s humanitarian officials in Gaza told The Associated Press that on-the-ground preparations for a new US-led sea route were on track to bring in more food — including treatment for hundreds of thousands of starving children — by early or mid-May. That’s when the American military expects to finish building a floating pier to receive the shipments. Ramping up the delivery of aid on the planned US-backed sea route will be gradual as aid groups test the distribution and security arrangements for relief workers, the USAID official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity over security concerns for work done in a conflict zone. They were some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s $320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution. At a factory in rural Georgia on Friday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pointed to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world as she announced a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5. Power spoke to factory workers, peanut farmers and local dignitaries sitting among pallets of the paste at the Mana nonprofit in Fitzgerald. It is one of two factories in the US that produces the nutritional food, which is used in clinical settings and made from ground peanuts, powdered milk, sugar and oil, ready to eat in plastic pouches resembling large ketchup packets. “This effort, this vision meets the moment,” Power said. “And it could not be more timely, more necessary or more important.” Under pressure from the US and others, Israeli officials in recent weeks have begun slowly reopening some border crossings for relief shipments. But aid coming through the sea route, once it’s operational, still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza. Aid organizations including USAID stress that getting more aid through border crossings is essential to staving off famine. Children under 5 are among the first to die when wars, droughts or other disasters curtail food. Hospital officials in northern Gaza reported the first deaths from hunger in early March and said most of the dead were children. Power said the UN has called for 400 metric tons of the nutritional paste “in light of the severe hunger that is pervading across Gaza right now, and the severe, acute humanitarian crisis.” USAID expects to provide a quarter of that, she said. Globally, she said at the Georgia factory, the treatment made there “will save untold lives, millions of lives.” USAID is coordinating with the World Food Program and other humanitarian partners and governments on security and distribution for the pier project, while US military forces finish building it. President Joe Biden, under pressure to do more to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the US provides military support for Israel, announced the project in early March. US Central Command said in a statement Friday that offshore assembly of the floating pier has been temporarily paused due to high winds and sea swells, which caused unsafe conditions for soldiers. The partially built pier and the military vessels involved have gone to Israel’s Port of Ashdod, where the work will continue. A US official said the high seas will delay the installation for several days, possibly until later next week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operation details, said the pause could last longer if the bad weather continues because military personnel and divers have to get into the water for the final installation. The struggles this week with the first aid delivery through a newly reopened land corridor into north Gaza underscored the uncertainty about security and the danger still facing relief workers. Israeli settlers blocked the convoy before it crossed Wednesday. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before UN officials reclaimed it. In Gaza, the nutritional treatment for starving children is most urgently needed in the northern part of the Palestinian territory. Civilians have been cut off from most aid supplies, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and driven into hiding by fighting. Acute malnutrition rates there among children under 5 have surged from 1 percent before the war to 30 percent five months later, the USAID official said. The official called it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history, more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan. One of the few medical facilities still operating in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan hospital, is besieged by parents bringing in thousands of children with malnutrition for treatment, the official said. Aid officials believe many more starving children remain unseen and in need, with families unable to bring them through fighting and checkpoints for care. Saving the gravely malnourished children in particular requires both greatly increased deliveries of aid and sustained calm in fighting, the official said, so that aid workers can set up treatment facilities around the territory and families can safely bring children in for the sustained treatment needed.  

The UN warns Sudan’s warring parties that Darfur risks starvation and death if aid is not allowed in

• At least 1.7 million people in Darfur were experiencing emergency levels of hunger in December
• Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary forces broke out into street battles

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations food agency warned Sudan’s warring parties Friday that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don’t allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region. Leni Kinzli, the World Food Programme’s regional spokesperson, said at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were experiencing emergency levels of hunger in December, and the number “is expected to be much higher today.” “Our calls for humanitarian access to conflict hotspots in Sudan have never been more critical,” she told a virtual UN press conference from Nairobi. Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region. The paramilitary forces, known as the RSF, have gained control of most of Darfur and are besieging El Fasher, the only capital in Darfur they don’t hold, where some 500,000 civilians had taken refuge. Kinzli said WFP’s partners on the ground report that the situation in El Fasher is “extremely dire” and it’s difficult for civilians wanting to flee the reported RSF bombings and shelling to leave. She said the violence in El Fasher and surrounding North Darfur is exacerbating the critical humanitarian needs in the entire Darfur region, where crop production for staple cereals like wheat, sorghum and millet is 78 percent less than the five-year average. On top of the impact of escalating violence, Kinzli said, “WFP is concerned that hunger will increase dramatically as the lean season between harvests sets in and people run out of food.” She said a farmer in El Fasher recently told her that her family had already run out of food stocks and is living day-to-day, an indication that the “lean season,” which usually starts in May, started earlier. Kinzli said she received photos earlier Friday from colleagues on the ground of severely malnourished children in a camp for displaced people in Central Darfur, as well as older people “who have nothing left but skin and bones.” “Recent reports from our partners indicate that 20 children have died in recent weeks of malnutrition in that IDP camp,” she said. “People are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells,” Kinzli said. “And if assistance doesn’t reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan.” Kinzli called for “a concerted diplomatic effort by the international community to push the warring parties to provide access and safety guarantees” for humanitarian staff and convoys. “One year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to ignite the world’s largest hunger crisis,” she warned. “With almost 28 million people facing food insecurity across Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, the conflict is spilling over and exacerbating the challenges that we’ve already been facing over the last year.” In March, Sudanese authorities revoked WFP’s permission to deliver aid from neighboring Chad to West Darfur and Central Darfur from the town of Adre, saying that crossing had been used to transfer weapons to the RSF. Kinzli said restrictions from Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan are also preventing WFP from transporting aid via Adre. Sudanese authorities approved the delivery of aid from the Chadian town of Tina to North Darfur, but Kinzli said WFP can no longer use that route for security reasons because it goes directly into besieged El Fasher. On Thursday, gunmen in South Darfur killed two drivers for the International Committee of the Red Cross and injured three ICRC staff members. On Friday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith called the killing of aid works “unconscionable.” Kinzli said the fighting “and endless bureaucratic hurdles” have prevented WFP from delivering aid to over 700,000 people in Darfur ahead of the rainy season when many roads become impassable. “WFP currently has 8,000 tons of food supplies ready to move in Chad, ready to transport, but is unable to do so because of these constraints,” she said. “WFP urgently requires unrestricted access and security guarantees to deliver assistance,” she said. “And we must be able to use the Adre border crossing, and move assistance across front lines from Port Sudan in the east to Darfur so we can reach people in this desperate region.”

US alarmed by signs of ‘imminent military offensive’ in Darfur

UN warns of new flashpoint in Sudan’s Darfur region

Hamas ‘only thing standing between the people of gaza and a ceasefire’: blinken.

• ‘We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages’
• But official says US cannot support a major military operation going into Rafah

France condemns attack on Red Cross in Sudan

PARIS: France on Friday condemned “in the strongest terms” an attack on an International Committee of the Red Cross convoy in war-torn Sudan that killed two staff and injured three others. “France calls on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, which obliges them to protect humanitarian and health staff and guarantee complete, safe and unhindered humanitarian access,” said French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine. The ICRC said gunmen killed two drivers and injured three staff in South Darfur on Thursday as they returned from a humanitarian mission. A brutal conflict between the Sudanese army led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his ex-deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has torn the country apart for more than a year. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called the “largest displacement crisis in the world.” It has also triggered acute food shortages and a humanitarian crisis that has left the northeast African country’s people at risk of starvation.

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https://www.barrons.com/news/palestinian-president-to-visit-china-next-week-d5a66019

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Palestinian President To Visit China Next Week

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Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has been invited to China by leader Xi Jinping

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

"He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly," ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.

Abbas is an "old and good friend of the Chinese people", he added.

"China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights."

Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there -- efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.

Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to "work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue".

And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.

And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.

In both calls Qin emphasised China's push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a "two-state solution".

"The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice."

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Blinken’s China Trip Shows Both Sides Want to Stabilize Ties

Cooperation is not off the table but will not be the thrust of U.S.-China interactions.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

/ READ TIME: 8 minutes

By: Rosie Levine ; Carla Freeman, Ph.D. ; Andrew Scobell, Ph.D.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to China last week as part of a series of recent high-level contacts between Washington and Beijing. Although no major breakthroughs came out of the trip, it demonstrates that both sides want to prevent bilateral ties from sinking any lower, even as U.S.-China competition continues to intensify.

Tensions in the South China Sea remain a dangerous flash point, as the U.S. has responded to China’s aggressive actions there by strengthening its alliances and partnerships in the region and ramping up maritime military exercises. While it’s unlikely the two sides will come to a resolution any time soon on the wide range of bilateral and international domains of disagreement, Blinken’s trip highlighted key areas for U.S.-China cooperation and engagement.

USIP’s Rosie Levine, Carla Freeman and Andrew Scobell discuss what this visit tells us about the U.S. approach to China and what it means for relations between the two powers.

What was expected for Blinken’s visit to Beijing and did it deliver? 

Levine: The U.S.-China bilateral relationship is still marked by deep-seated tensions and intensifying strategic competition. The visit is the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the United States and China aimed at improving communication. This is Blinken’s second visit to China within the last 12 months. The last visit, in June, marked the resumption of communications after a period of frozen high-level contact following former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022 and Blinken’s derailed February 2023 visit, which canceled in reaction to China’s spy balloon .

President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent phone call built upon the shared agenda generated at their San Francisco meeting in November 2023. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen led an economic delegation to China earlier this month, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have been meeting regularly over the past few years, including in Washington, Bangkok and Vienna. Notably, in April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resumed military dialogues with his Chinese counterpart in Hawaii, allowing for the first high-level, military-to-military exchange since November 2022.

Despite the higher frequency of contact, there was limited optimism that this visit would bring a significant change in the bilateral relationship. It was clear that Blinken approached the meetings with a wish list of agenda items , including cooperation on AI governance, managing the supply chain of precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, risks of conflict over Taiwan, increasing hostilities in the South China Sea and warnings to Xi about China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The areas where the meeting seemed to break ground were on the issues of cooperation on curbing the flow of synthetic opioids, a willingness to collaborate on AI governance and people-to-people ties. Blinken met China's minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, and noted the early successes of the bilateral Counter Narcotics Working Group . He also pointed to official U.S.-China talks on artificial intelligence that will be held in the coming weeks. Blinken visited the New York University Shanghai campus and underscored the importance for the next generations of Americans and Chinese to better understand one another to solve shared challenges in the future.

Xi greeted Blinken and both reiterated the desire to stabilize the relationship. If Xi had failed to greet Blinken, it could have signaled de-prioritization of mending ties with the United States.

It is clear that Blinken sent various messages on issues of importance to American interests and global peace and security. One point Blinken underscored in his press briefing was the dissatisfaction from the U.S., NATO allies and G7 partners toward China for its role in supporting Russia’s war effort by supplying machine tools and other components Russia uses for producing ammunition. While it is clear that the message was delivered , it remains unclear if or how China will respond to this critique. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to travel to China in May, and there is little indication China will change its approach to its relationship with Russia.

What does Blinken’s visit signal about the U.S. approach to China? 

Freeman: Blinken’s visit marks a U.S. effort to steady the U.S.-China relationship. The administration’s policy of “managed competition” with China continues to define its approach but Washington now seeks to inject greater stability into the bilateral relationship with its rival by pursuing a number of key approaches.

First, Blinken’s visit made clear that there is no new framing for the bilateral relationship that might refocus it on expanding U.S.-China cooperation amid significant areas of difference between the two sides. However, Blinken laid out a set of U.S. priorities for its diplomacy toward China. Amid mistrust and friction across a range of issues, action-reaction dynamics have typified recent bilateral interactions, giving the relationship a risky unpredictability and further aggravating tensions. The effort to articulate a focused set of administration priorities for the relationship aims to curb this volatility by focusing bilateral diplomacy on key U.S. interests. These include the areas of potential U.S.-China cooperation mentioned above as well areas where the U.S. sees China’s policies and actions as harming the interests of the United States and its allies.

Second, the visit made clear that the administration will work to open and sustain more channels of bilateral communication to reduce the risk of miscalculation and military escalation between the two sides. A key priority is military-to-military communications, which Blinken emphasized is urgently needed to reduce the risk of an escalatory military encounter between the two countries facing off in the waters and skies in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.  

But these also include more diplomatic lines of communication, people-to-people ties and information flows that help reduce misunderstanding between the two sides. As Blinken underscored, information flows are also key to curbing trafficking in illicit drugs and their precursors, as well as other areas of transnational crime. Sustaining open channels will be a priority as the administration seeks to address its concerns on such sensitive issues as how China uses advanced U.S. technologies, as well as China’s industrial capacity.

Third, while Blinken carried a warning on the impact of China’s ongoing economic cooperation with Russia as “ powering ” the war in Ukraine, the top U.S. diplomat also suggested that the administration views China as a potentially constructive actor in helping to resolve international conflict, including in the Middle East. 

That Blinken offered no grand visions for the U.S.-China relationship during his visit to Beijing makes clear that the administration has no plans to reframe the U.S.-China relationship. Instead, Washington will focus on mitigating turbulence in the relationship through more robust diplomacy on issues of friction in the relationship. Cooperation is not off the table but will not be the thrust of U.S.-China interactions.

What does Blinken’s visit mean for U.S.-China relations? 

Scobell: Blinken’s recent three-day visit to China underscores both the value and limitations of in-person meetings between senior U.S. officials and their Chinese counterparts. During the on-going frosty era in U.S.-China relations, high-level direct dialogue is important. As Blinken noted before his meeting with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi: “There’s no substitute for face-to-face diplomacy … in order to try and move forward, but also to make sure that we’re as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences … to avoid misunderstandings [and] miscalculations.” It is noteworthy that other more focused dialogues have resumed or are scheduled to begin in the near future. The latter includes military-to-military discussions, while the former includes talks on Artificial Intelligence.

But the limitations on face-to-face talks are also real. While objectively speaking, Xi is correct in reportedly saying to Blinken that “[t]he world is big enough to accommodate the simultaneous development and prosperity of both China and the United States,” this is frankly not the way leaders in Beijing — or in Washington for that matter — perceive each other and the tumultuous current global situation. China’s communist rulers perceive that the United States is trying to contain China militarily and restrain its economic growth. U.S. leaders, meanwhile, perceive that China’s communist rulers are actively working to undermine the rules-based international order and weaken the United States. China’s rulers believe that the United States is strengthening security ties with its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and beyond to encircle China while U.S. leaders believe Beijing is stepping up its coercive activities against multiple neighbors, notably Taiwan and the Philippines, as well as strengthening an alliance-like relationship with Moscow.

While Blinken’s discussions with Xi, Wang and other senior Chinese communist rulers last week were far from being dialogues of the deaf, it does appear that to at least to a considerable extent each side was talking past the other. That said, the good news is that both sides sincerely seem to want a more stable bilateral relationship and are prepared to try and work toward this end. The bad news is that each side blames the other for the abysmal state of U.S.-China relations and expects the other side to take the first step to ameliorate ties. At least neither side wants to take a step backwards.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s).

PUBLICATION TYPE: Question and Answer

Palestinian President Abbas says only US can halt Israel’s attack on Rafah

More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza city after being displaced by Israeli attacks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says only the United States could stop Israel from attacking the border city of Rafah in Gaza, adding that the assault, which he expects within days, could force much of the Palestinian population to flee the enclave.

“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday.

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Israel, which has threatened for weeks to launch an all-out assault on the city, saying its goal is to destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions there, stepped up air attacks on Rafah last week.

Western countries, including Israel’s closest ally the US, have pleaded with it to hold back from attacking the southern city, which abuts the Egyptian border and is sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled Israel’s seven-month-long assault on much of the rest of Gaza.

Abbas said that even a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee Gaza.

“The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen,” he said.

Abbas reiterated that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt and said he is concerned that once Israel completes its operations in Gaza, it will then attempt to force the Palestinian population out of the occupied West Bank and into Jordan.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Ramallah, said that Abbas’s remarks were significant as it was the first time a senior leader in the PA made such a statement, but added that the Palestinians expect more from the leader of the PA.

“Abbas is simply echoing the things that the Palestinians we have been speaking to said for the last six months,” he said.

“The reaction to Abbas’s remarks on the Palestinian streets is likely to mirror a broader political response. The people we have been speaking to say that what they see is a speech from their leader, far too late and far too weak.”

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which Israel said 1,139 people were killed and 253 taken captive.

More than 34,400 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry, and most of the population is displaced.

Hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in Rafah have nowhere to flee in the face of Israel’s offensive that has levelled large swaths of the urban landscape in the rest of the territory.

United Nations officials and human rights groups warn that an attack on Rafah will be catastrophic.

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China’s Xi to visit France, Serbia, Hungary as Beijing appears to seek a larger role in Ukraine

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping talks to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People, on April 26, 2024, in Beijing, China. Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France, Serbia and Hungary next week as Beijing appears to seek a larger role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that has upended global political and economic security, China’s foreign ministry said Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool, File)

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BEIJING, China (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France, Serbia and Hungary next week as Beijing appears to seek a larger role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that has upended global political and economic security.

The visit by Xi, China’s president and head of the ruling Communist Party, is his first to Europe in five years and will “inject new momentum to the peaceful development of the world,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing on Monday.

China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict, but Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared their governments had a “no limits friendship” before Moscow’s February 2022 attack on Ukraine. China has refused to call the Russian assault an invasion and has been accused of bolstering Russia’s financial and technological ability to continue producing weapons for use against Ukraine, which is awaiting tens of billions of dollars in military aid to counter Russia’s aggression.

The Foreign Ministry said Xi’s visits will begin April 5 and end April 10 but gave no further details.

The visits will be closely watched in Washington for any signs of diminishing support for key U.S. foreign policy goals.

French President Emmanuel Macron prompted concerns in Washington during a visit to China last year after saying that France wouldn’t blindly follow the U.S. in getting involved in crises that are not of its concern, an apparent reference to China’s demands for unification with Taiwan.

China has built strong relations with Serbia, including making a semi-secret delivery of an anti-aircraft missile system to the former Yugoslav republic in 2022.

The government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delayed Sweden’s entry into NATO for months. NATO expansion has been cited by China as provoking Putin to invade Ukraine.

Orbán, a right-wing populist who has forged close ties with Russia, has said that criticism of Hungary’s governance by Swedish politicians soured relations between the two countries and led to reluctance among lawmakers in his Fidesz party to support Sweden’s NATO entry.

The visits come after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Xi in Beijing and stressed the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues .

Also on Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu hailed military cooperation with China during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.

He said the cooperation is important as “new hotbeds of tension are emerging and old ones are exacerbating. In essence, this is the result of geopolitical adventures, selfish neo-colonial actions of the West.”