What did China come to do in this powder keg?
Beijing announced Sunday, May 16, its willingness to mediate for possible talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
A little earlier, the Asian superpower - which currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council - had "regretted the American obstruction" to adopt a joint declaration by this body calling for an end to hostilities in the region. .
In a coordinated effort to highlight the importance of this initiative, Chinese state media have also multiplied articles extolling Beijing's activism on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
The Global Times on Saturday praised the "vista" of Chinese leaders who recognize the importance of this crisis as "the United States tries to downplay the Palestinian problem."
Andrew Korybko, an American political scientist based in Russia who often intervenes in the Chinese and Russian media to criticize the United States, praised Chinese "pragmatism" in a column published on Sunday on the website of the CGTN, the Chinese news channel continuously.
Let the United States "break its teeth"
This Chinese desire to step forward diplomatically to reach out to the Israelis and Palestinians who have been engaged for more than a week in a cycle of violence may come as a surprise. Historically, Beijing "has always been careful not to get involved in this conflict in the Middle East", reminds France 24 Erzsébet Rózsa, Middle East specialist at EuroMeSCo, a research network on the Mediterranean Basin region, and author of a study on the evolution of Chinese involvement in the Middle East.
Until 2016, Beijing did not even have an official doctrine for the Arab world even as economic exchanges with this region have intensified for nearly a decade. China saw the Middle East primarily as an oil reservoir. The publication of the regime's official line for the Arab world in January 2016 confirmed that Beijing was keen to remain a purely economic partner in this region. If energy imports remain the central pillar of trade between China and the Arab world, then it is also a question of investment in infrastructure or trade diversification.
But no question of speaking too loudly about the Israeli-Palestinian problem. "China has long let the United States break its teeth on this issue," said Erzébet Rózsa. This allowed him to maintain an image of a neutral actor, taking care not to offend any political susceptibility whatsoever in the region so as not to jeopardize his chances of doing business.
Behind the scenes, his position has evolved nonetheless.
Traditionally, China has tended to side with the Palestinians instead.
In particular, she refused to qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization in 2006 after their victory in the Palestinian legislative elections.
However, with the rise since 2013 of the "new silk roads" - the large program of Chinese investments outside its borders -, "Israel has gained in commercial importance in the eyes of Beijing", underlines Erzsébet Rózsa.
An "alternative to the United States" for the countries of the region
The Hebrew state even occupies a special place in the Chinese hierarchy of countries in the region since it is the only one to benefit "from a status of partner in innovation", underlines Canan Atilgan, specialist in the Middle East to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and author of a study on the rise of China in the region, contacted by France 24. A category that covers both Sino-Israeli exchanges in terms of new technologies as well as anything that has deals with innovations in health, an area in which Israel is at the forefront.
The growing importance of Chinese economic interests in the region has inevitably prompted Beijing to take a closer interest in security issues.
Even if it means playing a more active role in various diplomatic efforts.
Thus, Beijing has already acted as a mediator in 2017 between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and has tried to make its voice heard on several occasions in the Syrian file.
But overall, "finding political solutions to conflicts in the Middle East is not a Chinese priority because Beijing has absolutely no experience of the dynamics of crises in the region," Canan Atilgan said.
This is why the current Chinese diplomatic offensive in a file as sensitive as that of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis perhaps constitutes the beginning of a new stage for Beijing, according to the experts interviewed by France 24. Certainly, this is for the moment only the offer to play a role of mediator.
"This does not involve much", recognizes Erzébet Rózsa.
For her, the initiative is above all a signal that "in the longer term, China is preparing to be more invested diplomatically in the region".
Beijing "is trying to start projecting itself, through this crisis, on the international scene as an actor capable of offering an alternative to the United States perceived by the Arab countries as a mediator too partial and too pro-Israel", continues the EuroMeSCo specialist.
Through the hand extended to the Israelis and the Palestinians, Beijing seeks above all to signal to all the countries of the region that China feels ready, according to Erzébet Rózsa, to take on the role of "impartial superpower" not only interested in Saudi oil imports or the development of a technological partnership with Israel.
China does not yet have the shoulders to become the region's new sheriff - and may never have them.
But at a time when Joe Biden's America is questioning its degree of involvement in the region, this may be a way of telling countries that may regret the privileged relations maintained with Donald Trump - such as Arabia Arabia - that there is an alternative in the United States.
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