China to push for Gaza cease-fire at UN Security Council

China wants to use its monthly rotating presidency in the United Nations Security Council to intensify international calls for a “cease-fire” in the war in Gaza, as Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, said. He spoke to reporters on Nov. 1, detailing his country’s plans to lead the Council in November.

China, he said, was working with its fellow 14 Council members in presenting a draft resolution addressing the enormous humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, as well as to monitor what might happen on the ground. The text was still being negotiated as of Wednesday, with no word on when or whether it will be voted on.

The United States secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is scheduled to visit Israel on Friday, so the Council’s action could take a back seat during Blinken’s latest trip to the Mideast. He said on Nov. 2 as he left for his journey that one objective is to increase humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

The 10 elected Council members, deeply frustrated by the body’s inability to approve a text spotlighting the humanitarian drama being wrought by Israel’s deadly bombardment in Gaza in the last several weeks, are leading the newest effort to produce a resolution that will not be vetoed.

(The US and Russia have each submitted draft resolutions on the crisis since the Oct. 7 slaughter by Hamas in Israel and its indiscrimatory retaliation, but both attempts have failed.)

Ambassador Zhang Jun, China’s top representative to the United Nations, is president of the Security Council in November.

At the media briefing, Zhang said that China would keep working with the UN and regional bodies to push for a cease-fire, adding that only a “two-state solution” can end the overall Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Nov. 28 to focus on the multifaceted issues derailing parts of the Mideast. But more urgent requests for sessions on the war could pop up.

The US has been adamant in not using the word “cease-fire” in relation to humanitarian aid in Gaza, although Blinken agreed this week that such “pauses” must “be considered.” “We will continue to make further efforts to ensure that the Council can play a responsible and meaningful role in calling for a cease-fire, protecting the civilians, preventing further deterioration of the war and further humanitarian catastrophe,” Zhang said.

The war will dominate the Council in November, Zhang said repeatedly. A cease-fire is the first step to ensure the conflict does not spill over to ignite a regional bloodbath, he also noted. (The UN, relying on data from the Gaza Health Ministry, says that approximately 9,000 Palestinians have died in the war so far; fatalities from the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 number 1,400, according to Israeli official sources.)

China said it would also use its presidency to draw attention to the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, situated along the Blue Line — which marks the boundary where Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 — to prevent the war from spreading.