中国和中东【DOC精选】.docVIP

China and the Middle East Playing the peacemaker? China hosts Israeli and Palestinian leaders and touts its peacemaking credentials May 11th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print edition New-found friends THERE are about 20km (12 miles)—and lots of checkpoints—between the official residence in Jerusalem of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and the headquarters in Ramallah of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. This week, as both leaders made simultaneous official visits to China, care was taken to keep a much greater distance between them. Their itineraries put them in different cities at all times. Ever since the 1970s, when Henry Kissinger used shuttle diplomacy to marginalise the Soviet Union in much of the Arab world, America has dominated the geopolitics of the Middle East. Inevitably, this week’s visits prompted the idea that a rising China might be dabbling in the superpower sport of broking peace between the Jews and the Arabs. In this section Girl power Playing the peacemaker? Reprints Related topics Syria Middle East Israel Middle East conflict War and conflict Chinese experts spoke enthusiastically of this possibility in the national media. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, did her share to foster speculation about a potentially dramatic development, saying before the visits that “If the leaders of Palestine and Israel have the will to meet in China, China is willing to offer necessary assistance.” In the end there was no handshake, nor was one ever likely. China’s rising political and economic might, and its growing appetite for energy, mean it has more at stake in the Middle East than it used to, but it still lacks the clout to knock heads together. Chinese aid to the Palestinian side is dwarfed by what America and others give. And despite growing bilateral trade and technology ties, China “is in no position to coerce Israel to do anything it doesn’t want,” says Robert Ross of Boston College. Nor is it clear that