BEIJING (Reuters) -Beijing opposes U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza and have the U.S. take over the region, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, 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.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military assault on the enclave has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and provoked accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
Trump on Tuesday proposed a U.S. 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.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill and Bernadette Baum)
