By John Lee
Business Spectator - 14 May, 2013
Chinese President Xi Jinping had the rare opportunity to receive both
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within days of each other last week. In a
move that astounded international diplomats, President Xi issued a ‘four
point peace plan’ to Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, while the Chinese
Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a press release days later offering to
host an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in the future.
To be
sure, Beijing’s peace plan is unoriginal and based on terms that have
already been settled as a precondition to end the decades-old conflict,
such as an enduring two-state solution. Neither has the offer to host a
peace summit been taken up by either side, with the Palestinian
Authority ignoring the offer and Israel subsequently characterising its
visit to China as one only focusing on trade rather than politics.
But
the likely lack of tangible outcomes from Xi’s peace missive is not the
point. China has long stayed out of the politics of third-party
conflicts outside its immediate region, preferring to follow Deng
Xiaoping’s advice to 'avoid controversy' in non-core issues and ‘keep a
low profile’. Its United Nations Security Council behaviour and record,
where it allows Russia to take the lead when it comes to rebuffing
American and European (British and French) sponsored resolutions, will
attest to this. One could not imagine predecessor Hu Jintao seeking a
more prominent role in what is probably the world’s most intractable
dispute, given that British and then American efforts have attracted at
least as much criticism as applause from other governments and
commentators. Still, Xi’s unexpected outreach is early evidence that
China is recognising keeping a low profile has risks as well as
advantages. And as its power and interests grow, it can less afford to
allow Western powers to set the agenda for issues away from Asia.
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