Beijing opposes US President Donald Trump’s push to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza and have the US take over the region, China’s foreign ministry said yesterday, underlining a long-held position against forced displacement of people.
China supports the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular Press briefing.
Trump on Tuesday proposed a US takeover of Gaza, after he earlier suggested that Palestinians in the enclave should be permanently displaced.
Trump’s earlier comments that Palestinians should move to Egypt and Jordan were rejected publicly by Palestinian and Arab leaders.
Other world leaders said they supported the so-called two-state solution, which envisages Israeli and Palestinian states alongside each other.
China is ready to work with the international community to take the two-state solution as the fundamental way out, and push for an early and just political settlement of the Palestinian issue, Guo said.
“Gaza is the Gaza of Palestinians, an integral part of the Palestinian territory, not a political bargaining chip, let alone the target of a law of the jungle,” Guo said.
In a position paper in late 2023, China called on the United Nations Security Council to help restore a two-state solution.
“Any arrangement on the future of Gaza must respect the will and independent choice of the Palestinian people, and must not be imposed upon them,” according to the paper.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said he rejected any attempts to annex land and displace Palestinians after a shock proposal by Trump that the US take over Gaza, an issue that strikes a raw nerve in the kingdom.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to (Israeli) settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Jordanian royal court said in a post on X.
The issue is especially sensitive for Jordan.
Accepting Trump’s plan could further inflame domestic unrest in Jordan, where over a year of protests against Israel’s Gaza offensive has highlighted the country’s dependence on the US and Israel.
A large portion of Jordan’s population, including many Palestinians with Jordanian citizenship and over two million Palestinian refugees, has expressed frustration with the government’s reluctance to sever ties with the two countries.
Jordan has long been one of the Middle East’s largest recipients of US foreign aid, and this assistance plays a significant role in the country’s economic stability and security.
The role, presence and the future of Palestinians in Jordan is one of the country’s most politically sensitive issues. The government does not release data on how many of its eight million citizens are of Palestinian descent, although a recent US congressional report estimated the figure at over half.
The Jordanian monarch is scheduled to meet Trump on Tuesday at the White House.
In a Press conference, Trump said Jordan’s king and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi would come around to the idea despite their opposition.
Trump said they would “open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done and people can live in harmony and in peace.”
Egypt rejects and will not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza, its foreign ministry said yesterday.
Egypt, which borders the tiny enclave, denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza under US control.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents from the strip, Israeli media reported.
Apparently referring to Katz’s order, the ministry said: “Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act which weakens the ceasefire negotiations, and would squash them and incite a return of fighting.”
In January Egypt, alongside Qatar and the US, brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ending a 15-month-long war that upended the Middle East. Talks about the second phase of the deal were supposed to get under way this week.
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