On September 1, 2022, Guo Wei, Head of Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine attended an online seminar on the international and regional situation organized by the Palestinian People's Party (PPP) and delivered a speech and exchanged views, explaining and publicizing the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, expounding China's consistent position on the Taiwan question, and introducing China's Middle East policy and propositions on the Palestinian question. Bassam Al-Salhi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), General Secretary of the PPP, as well as people from relevant political parties, experts and scholars inside and outside of Palestine's border attended the seminar. The participants highly appreciated China's initiative to answer the question of our times: “Where the world is headed?”, appreciated China for upholding a just position on Middle East affairs and the Palestinian question, and supported China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The full text of the speech is as follows.

It's my pleasure to attend today's seminar. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the General Secretary Salhi and the host of the seminar and extend my greetings to all the friends present.

At present, the COVID-19 pandemic is eroding decades of gains in global development, the global industrial and supply chains are being disrupted and crises are emerging in food and energy security. World economic recovery, security and stability are facing severe challenges, and the Middle East region is particularly under pressure. President Xi Jinping has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, which have instilled dynamism to push the world out of the dark shadow and provided a new avenue for development and security in the Middle East.

In recent years, Belt and Road Cooperations between China and Middle East Countries have continued to move forward in spite of the impacts of the pandemic. China has kept its position as the largest trading partner of Middle East countries for many years. In the first five months of this year, China's bilateral trade volume with the region exceeded $200 billion, an increase of nearly 40% over the same period last year. As of July this year, China had provided more than 500 million doses of vaccines to 17 countries in the Middle East, building a solid shield of defense the virus with concrete actions.

In June this year, President Xi Jinping, at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, put forward the idea of creating a development paradigm featuring benefits for all, balance, coordination, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and common prosperity., holding high the great banner of global development cooperation and playing the strong voice of our times for China and the Middle East countries jointed the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative to show support for the initiative with concrete actions.

In April this year, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Security Initiative at the Boao Forum for Asia to further promote a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture on the basis of the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security,  providing a new direction to address the root causes of international conflicts and achieve lasting peace stability in the world, and opening up a new security path of dialogue instead of confrontation, partnership instead of alliance, and win-win instead of zero-sum for regional countries, receiving positive responses from regional countries.

The Middle East is one of the major birthplaces of human civilizations, with thousands of years of civilizations in Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Islam, and is a magical land where civilizations are ways run parallel without interfering with one another. In modern times, Western countries opened the gates of the region with warships and guns, and divided the Middle East with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which sowed seeds of further trouble in the Middle East. In the past decades, the United States and other Western countries have been competing to interfere in the Middle East affairs, arrogantly and condescendingly dictating to Middle Eastern countries, propelling the Arab Spring and staging color revolutions, leaving behind one mess after another in Iraq, Libya, Syria, bringing endless suffering to the Middle East people. Now it is creating conflicts, inciting confrontation and undermining the prospects of regional development and security. Such self-serving regional policies of America are already seen through by the Middle West countries, and their sense of independence is growing. The Middle East is a land of its people, not anyone's backyard, and there is no so-called “vacuum” there. 

The post-World War II international order is based on a profound historical reflection on the Global War against Fascism. The international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law have maintained the overall peace in the world for nearly 80 years. Now, some Western countries such as the United States proposed a “rules-based” international order, which in essence is to obscure, tamper with and weaken the post-war international order and replace the generally accepted “rules of the gang” of international law with the rules of a small number of other countries. Their common tactics are to create “strategic enemies”, to create “small cliques” and “small blocs” against specific countries, and to join hands to raise and put pressure. This is exemplified by the recent actions of the U.S. and the West on the Taiwan question. No matter how the U.S. wraps up the defense of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, it does not change the fact that the U.S. is undermining the one-China principle, an important part of the post-World War II international order. In response to China's legitimate countermeasures, the U.S. gives up its trick of a thief crying “stop thief”, and some Western countries’ wanton assertion that China is overreacting. The international community sees clearly that the biggest destroyer of the international order is the United States and the West themselves.

This month, The US magazine Newsweek released the results of the latest Princeton University Arab Barometer, which shows that people in Arab states have more positive opinions about China than the US. It reflects the fact that our friendship is strong, and is an example of how China's Middle East foreign policy and the constructive role it plays in the region are welcomed and supported by the Arab public. In the case of Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Palestinian and other Middle Eastern countries have publicly spoken out to abide by the one-China principle and support China in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is an act of justice, but also the overwhelming support of the people. As the Arab proverb says, “True friendship will not end, and true friends will live forever.” China and the Middle East countries support each other more firmly on issues concerning our respective core interests and major concerns, and walk together in exploring independent development paths. China firmly supports the Middle East countries in resolving regional security issues through solidarity and cooperation, supports the people of the Middle East in independently exploring their own development path, stays committed to upholding the common interests of the majority of developing countries, including the regional countries, and safeguarding international justice and fairness, and has played its due role as a major responsible country to solve regional hotspots.

The Palestinian question remains at the very heart of the Middle East situation. Without its solution, tranquility can hardly be maintained in the Middle East and there will be no international fairness and justice to speak of. The recent conflict between Israel and Palestine has caused many civilian casualties, including children. It is indeed very heartrending. China firmly opposes and condemns all acts of violence targeting civilians. The underlying reason for the recurrent conflicts between Israel and Palestine is the absence of the implementation of the two-state solution and long denial of the Palestinian people's legitimate appeal of establishing an independent state. On the Palestine-Israel issue, China believes that the most fundamental goal is to deliver to the Palestinian people their long overdue justice. Last year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward three proposals for the implementation of the two-state solution, advocating the strengthening of the authority of the Palestinian National Authority, supporting for greater unity of the Palestinian factions, whereby they can achieve internal reconciliation., calling for the holding of a larger, more authoritative and influential international peace conference led by the UN with the participation of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and all stakeholders in the Middle East peace process to search for a comprehensive, lasting and just solution to the Palestinian question. China firmly supports the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and will continue to make unremitting efforts for this outcome.

Dear friends, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is scheduled to be held in Beijing on October 16, which will scientifically plan the goals, tasks and policies for the development of the Party and the country in the next five years and beyond. No matter how the international landscape changes, China will continue to strengthen the complementarity of strategies and actions with the Middle East countries, jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative, work together to be the guardian of stability, the defender of justice and the promoter of common development in the Middle East, advance the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, inject stability and positive energy to the regional and world situation.