Palestine UN bid: Where does China stand?

[Jefferson23]

China's vote will fit into its framework of non-intervention, as it seeks to serve its own strategic interests.


Nima Khorrami Assl Last Modified: 29 Sep 2011 18:34


In the decades after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China's main interaction with the Middle East was its support for and cooperation with Arab "revolutionary groups". Gradually though, public support for the Palestinian liberation movement became the key characteristic of China's policy towards the Arab world, to the extent that George Habash called China Palestine's "best friend".

Beijing's support for Palestine during this period was a matter of ideology and identity. Perceiving the Palestinian guerrillas/freedom fighters as fellow victims of imperialism and capitalism, the CCP leadership was keen to be identified with the Palestinians and provide them with both military aid and training. China was in fact the first non-Arab state to give diplomatic recognition to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Respectively, it refused to recognise the State of Israel, and in 1978 supported a UN motion classifying Zionism as a "form of racism". However, China's support for Palestine had another dimension as well: pleasing other Arab countries so they would recognise the People's Republic as the "legitimate" Chinese state, not Taiwan.

By the early 1980s, however, China's Palestine policy had entered a new phase. While it labelled the 1982 incidents at Sabra and Shatila camps as "Hitlerism", Beijing was also forging covert ties with Tel Aviv. This was the direct result of Deng Xiaoping accession to power and the subsequent pragmatism that he brought to China's foreign policy establishment. By the mid 1980s, Israel had effectively become Beijing's main supplier of high technology, and China was now acknowledging "Israel's right to security and existence". Finally, events of Tiananmen Square and the resulting isolation of the Chinese state encouraged China to establish formal relations with Israel in 1992.

'Valuable public diplomacy'

Today, however, it is China's interest in improving its image in the Muslim world as well as its "long-term desire" to obtain strategic parity with the United States that encourage China to lend its backing to the PA attempt to gain recognition in the UN. Bordering Pakistan and home to 10 million Uighur Muslims, who insist on their distinct, non-Chinese identity, China has serious security concerns along its north western border as evident in recent knife attacks. Officials in Beijing are of the opinion that supporting the Palestinian cause is a "valuable public diplomacy tool" which will not only help China improve its standing amongst Muslims, but will, at a minimum, fend off any potential Arab criticism of Beijing's unsympathetic attitude towards Uighurs.

in full: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011928163950390354.html

[aquart]

1. Defending the Palestinians makes it okay to kill neighbor Muslim Uighurs.

Just like Turkey defending Palestinians makes it okay to murder Kurds.

Palestinians continue to be pawns nobody gives a damn about.

[Jefferson23]

2. Your "nobody" I presume includes Israel. n/t