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00:00 China hosting today a summit of Arab leaders focused on what's happening in Gaza.
00:06 At the opening of the event today, the Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for the establishment
00:12 of a Palestinian state and announcing more aid for the Gaza Strip.
00:20 War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever. Commitment to
00:28 the two-state solution should not waver. China firmly supports the establishment of an independent
00:38 state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem
00:47 as its capital. It supports Palestine's full membership in the United Nations and supports
00:57 a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.
01:02 Well, listening to the Chinese leader there was James Dorsey. He joins us on the programme
01:11 now. He's a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
01:18 Hello to you, sir. Thanks very much for finding the time to talk to us on the programme.
01:21 Pleasure to be with you. Thank you for having me.
01:25 First of all, can you just tell us how you think China views the war between Israel and
01:32 Hamas in Gaza?
01:35 China's been supportive of a ceasefire ever since the war broke out. And so what Xi Jinping
01:44 today said at the meeting in Beijing is not new. That has been the Chinese position. What
01:52 it means, however, is that China's claim, as it did in the past, that it had good relations
01:59 with all parties, no longer is valid. China's relations with Israel have deteriorated significantly
02:06 because of the Chinese position with regard to the Gaza war.
02:10 Now, having said that, China has also seen the Gaza war as an opportunity to position
02:18 or improve China's standing in the Middle East, particularly in the non-Israeli Middle
02:24 East, and to position itself, even though that is highly unlikely, as an arbitrator.
02:34 That's interesting. You know, you talked about the idea that Israel and China have worsened
02:41 their diplomatic ties since the outbreak of this war and the kind of language that President
02:45 Xi has used. What I'm interested in, though, is does China have influence over the Palestinian
02:52 side of this, if not the Israelis, figures like those in the Palestinian Authority, those
02:57 in Hamas?
02:58 Well, I think it has moral influence. Fact of the matter is that China does not have
03:06 the kind of political influence, it has economic influence, but the kind of political influence
03:13 that would allow it to be a mediator. China has, China's track record in Middle East
03:20 mediation is not an overall successful track record. Sure, it succeeded last year in helping
03:29 Saudi Arabia and Iran reestablish diplomatic relations, but keep in mind that those, the
03:37 process leading up to those diplomatic relations was, took two years and China was not involved
03:46 in that. The mediators were countries like Iraq and Oman. And if you look at the current
03:55 diplomatic efforts, everybody agrees that the one party that can help bring this war
04:01 to an end is the United States. It's not China.
04:06 China, though, clearly still trying to exert influence, show it has a diplomatic role to
04:12 play. We just saw in the footage there, Xi Jinping meeting the Egyptian president. Speak
04:18 to us a bit more broadly about why the Chinese leader has invited these Arab leaders to Beijing.
04:26 Is there an economic part of the puzzle here as well? We know, of course, China's long
04:31 imported oil from big Middle Eastern players in the Gulf and they're attending as well.
04:36 Well, the economic bit of this is extremely important because at the end of the day, China's
04:42 relations with the Middle East are primarily economic and China does not have an appetite
04:49 to replace the United States as the major power in the region. It emphasizes its economic
04:57 relations. The other question, of course, is whether it has the military capability
05:05 to ensure security in the Middle East. I think what you're seeing in terms of the positioning
05:11 of China as a political power, that that really is about China's image, China's relationships
05:20 and Chinese soft power, rather than really, really wanting China to play a role. If you
05:27 go back a couple of years, China laid out several principles which it would want to
05:36 see met if it were to get involved in the Middle East. And one of those principles was
05:41 that you have to manage your own conflicts. You may not be able to resolve them, but call
05:46 us when you have a mechanism to manage your conflicts and disputes. Clearly, the Middle
05:51 East does not have that mechanism. James Dorsey talking to us live in Singapore.
05:56 Good to speak to you, sir. Thanks very much.
05:58 Thank you for having me.