Political specialists recommended today, Saturday, the need to develop channels of communication with the People’s Republic of China, to strengthen its position in support of the Palestinian cause and limit the development of its relationship with the occupation. This came during the first session of the international conference “China and the Palestinian Issue”, which was held under the title “Chinese-Palestinian Relations: History and Present”.
The specialists stressed the need to intensify Palestinian and Arab efforts to communicate more with China, and to clarify some concepts in Chinese diplomacy towards the cause.
Jawad al-Hamad, head of the Center for Middle East Studies, described China’s current policy toward the Palestinian cause as “cautious,” noting that it “is different from the United States in the matter of adopting the principle of the two-state solution, and stresses the need for Palestine to have full sovereignty over the 1967 territories.”
Al-Hamad indicated that China considers the Palestinian cause a just cause, and establishes contacts with Hamas movement, and always calls on the United States to pressure the occupation to stop settlements, pointing out that, at the same time, it does not use its influence to directly pressure the occupation.
He noted that Beijing is the second partner after Washington on the trade level with the occupation, and it relies heavily on “Tel Aviv” in its “Road and Belt” project, noting that “in exchange for these negative aspects, there are positive aspects coming from Beijing, such as preventing its citizens from working in settlements built on West Bank lands.
Al-Hamad called for the establishment of a research center in China aimed at introducing the justice of the Palestinian cause, and targeting the youth group who do not know anything about the occupation’s attacks against the Palestinian people.
On Saturday, the opening of the activities of the first international conference “China and the Palestinian Cause”, which was organized by Asia Middle East Forum (AMEF), in cooperation with a group of international organizations, and the friends of the Palestinian people in the People’s Republic of China, with the participation of political and academic figures from Palestine, China and Arab and Asian countries.
As for the political researcher, Muhammad Sawalha, he stressed that the current situation requires a closer look at how to benefit from relations with China as a rising global country, calling for a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic effort to confront the Sino-Israeli relations.
He also considered that the Oslo Accord constituted a disaster for the international Palestinian relations and gave legitimacy to the occupation and harmed the solidarity with the Palestinian people.
For his part, the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of the Chinese Foreign Affairs University, Prof. Dr. Gao Shangtao, stressed that China stands by the Palestinian people, adding that there must be rapid international attempts to ensure the full sovereignty of the Palestinians on the 1967 borders, “which is what It will bring peace to the region,” he said.
Furthermore, Director of Islam Studies and International Affairs, Sami Al-Arian, pointed out that the rise of China and the challenge it poses to the United States, provides an opportunity to exploit it for the benefit of the Palestinian cause and to counter the influence of the colonial powers supporting the Israeli occupation.
As for the Secretary of International Relations of the People’s Conference for Palestinians Abroad, Rebhi Halloum, he explained that China has become a concern for the major global powers and a challenge to all colonial countries that seek to extend their influence and control over the weak peoples in the world.
Halloum pointed out that the struggle background on which China was founded made it a land of struggle and revolution and all liberation movements in the world, stressing that China is one of the first countries to support the struggle of the Palestinian people and reject the occupation.
