China's foreign minister Wang Yi on Thursday, March 7th, called Israel's war in Gaza a "disgrace for civilisation" and reiterated Beijing's calls for an "immediate ceasefire". "It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilisation that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped," Wang told journalists at a press conference.
Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And President Xi Jinping has called for an "international peace conference" to resolve the fighting.
"No reason can justify the continuation of the conflict, and no excuse can justify being desperately killed," Wang said. "The international community must act urgently, making an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief an urgent moral responsibility."
Beijing's top diplomat also said China supports "full" United Nations membership for a Palestinian state. "We support Palestine becoming a formal member of the United Nations," Wang said.
"The catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be ignored," he said. "The long-cherished wish of the Palestinian people to establish an independent country can no longer be evaded, and the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue for generations without being corrected," he added.
Wang Yi, speaking to media during the annual meeting of China's legislature, also said that relations with the U.S. have improved since Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met in November, but that America has not fulfilled its promises.
"If the U.S. always says one thing and does another, where is its credibility as a major power? If the U.S. gets nervous and anxious when it hears the word ‘China,’ where is its confidence as a major power?" he said. "If the U.S. is obsessed with suppressing China, it will eventually harm itself."
And Beijing will "legitimately defend" its rights in the South China Sea, Wang Yi said, following a string of clashes between Chinese and Philippine ships in the disputed waterway.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea and has sought to assert sovereignty there despite competing claims from Southeast Asian nations and an international arbitration ruling that its stance has no legal basis. Tensions between Beijing and the Philippines have flared in recent months as ships from both countries have clashed near contested reefs, with the most recent dispute taking place this week.
"We will legitimately defend our rights in accordance with the law," Beijing's foreign minister Wang Yi said at a press conference on Thursday during the annual meeting of Chinese lawmakers known as the Two Sessions. "On maritime disputes, China has always maintained a high degree of restraint," Wang said at the briefing in Beijing.
"But of course, we do not allow our goodwill to be abused, and we do not accept the distortion or deliberate infringement of maritime laws," he said.