China’s Palestinian moment is about global standing rather than peace

Experts quash claims by Beijing that the Palestinian Authority president’s visit will facilitate new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

The Palestinian Authority president imminent state visit to China is aimed at bolstering Beijing’s credentials on the world stage rather than a serious attempt to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, experts have said.

Mahmoud Abbas’s four-day visit, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, has been described by Chinese state media as aimed at facilitating new peace talks predicated on a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. It also comes on the heels of Beijing’s recent success in brokering a detente between the Middle East’s two major religious and geopolitical poles, Saudi Arabia and Iran.