China Tells Israel to Stop 'Forced Establishment' of West Bank Settlements
Beijing delivers the message face to face
China has told Israel to stop the "forced establishment" of settlements in the West Bank and reverse its actions, per BBC.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi delivered the message to Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of a conference in Azerbaijan on Thursday, according to Wang's office. China has consistently held that the Palestinian question is the greatest historical injustice of this century, Wang told Herzog, per a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
Beijing has been a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause and maintains that a two-state solution is the correct direction.
China's Wang Yi told Israel's President Herzog in Azerbaijan that Israel must stop and reverse the "forced establishment" of West Bank settlements, per BBC.
Mediator ambitions and a stalled peace process
Wang said the immediate priority is to fully open access to Gaza and stop the continued spread of a humanitarian catastrophe, and that China is willing to work with the international community to get the parties back to dialogue and seek a political solution, per BBC.
Beijing has been positioning itself as a mediator for conflicts in the Middle East. In 2023 it brokered a deal restoring diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, earlier this year it joined efforts with Pakistan to propose a ceasefire in the US-Israel war against Iran, and in 2024 it got rival Palestinian factions to agree to form an interim national reconciliation government for the West Bank and Gaza, although that was never implemented.
Herzog said in a post on X that he was pleased to meet Wang and that their talk focused on relations between the two countries and the situation in the Middle East, emphasising Israel's desire for peace alongside the strategic threats to its security, first and foremost from Iran and its proxies. His office declined to comment on the West Bank discussion. China maintains close ties with Iran and is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
The exchange comes as progress into the next phase of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal has stalled, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating its terms.
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Options market and stocks to watch
Diplomatic friction between Beijing and Jerusalem is not a direct trade, but the regional temperature is. Escalation risk around Iran and Gaza prices through crude first: USO and the energy names in XLE react to any sign the ceasefire collapses.
China-facing assets carry the other side: FXI and MCHI if Beijing's Middle East role deepens into broader US-China friction, and EIS for Israel exposure itself. Defence primes like LMT remain the standing hedge. Follow the diplomacy on the Unusual Whales news feed.
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