Appeal - and realities - of China's peace initiatives

Middle East diplomatic deals signal Beijing's interest in being a global player but within limits.

- Jonathan Eyal

How do they do it? In just one year, Chinese diplomats managed to bring together countries and international actors that had been at one another's throats for decades, persuading them to sign deals nobody thought feasible.

In 2023, China brokered an agreement for the normalisation of diplomatic links between Saudi Arabia and Iran, arguably the Middle East's most significant regional rivals. Over the past week, Beijing also presided over the signing of a deal involving no fewer than 14 rival Palestinian factions that is supposed to lay the groundwork for an "interim national reconciliation government" to rule all the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands once the current fighting in Gaza ends.

And if this is not impressive enough, China is also currently pursuing a new initiative to end the Ukraine war.

A NEW APPROACH

Unquestionably, we are witnessing a new approach in China's global diplomatic outreach. But the deals are far from being "ground-breaking", as Chinese officials present them. On closer examination, the deals come across as written much more for the benefit of appearance and style rather than substance.

The real question is whether such agreements herald the start of a genuinely novel "peace-building with Chinese characteristics" strategy or whether Beijing's current diplomatic effort will continue to be about maximising the country's diplomatic footprint while restricting China's strategic liabilities to the barest minimum.

Although Chinese officials and academics frequently complain about the United States and its allies' determination to retain their overwhelming influence over the world's political and economic arrangements, the fact remains that current arrangements serve China pretty well.