On December 21, 2017, Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong attended and addressed the opening ceremony of Palestinian-Israeli Peace Symposium held in Beijing.
Chen Xiaodong expressed that the Arab people share the same root and common ancestry with the Jewish people. Enjoying inseparable interest integration and a pattern of interdependence, Palestine and Israel are a community of common destiny. An early realization of the independence and establishment of Palestine and the realization of living in harmony as neighbors between Palestine and Israel are long-cherished wishes of the Palestinian people, of great significance to the well-being of the Israeli people and moreover, serve the eager expectation of the international community.
Chen Xiaodong said that as a responsible major country, China has been a firm supporter of Palestine-Israel peace, actively advancing the Middle East peace process for a long time, and striving to facilitate peace talks. This July, President Xi Jinping put forward a four-point proposal on promoting the settlement of the Palestinian issue during the visit of President Mahmoud Abbas to China. President Xi Jinping proposed in the report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the general goal of the major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era is to foster a new type of international relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind. China will surely take this as a guidance to continue firmly supporting and unremittingly advancing the Middle East peace process.
In regard to Palestinian-Israeli peace process, Chen Xiaodong expressed that we should uphold the existing international consensus, among which the "two-state solution" is the most important one. The status of Jerusalem should also be settled ultimately through negotiations according to the basic consensus reached by the international community over the years. To adhere to the road of peace talks, Palestine and Israel should endeavor to start and continue the talks from easier issues to more difficult ones and let many a little make a mickle, thus constantly expanding consensus and forming a virtuous circle. To stick to promoting peace with development, the international community should highly value the development of Palestine, and increase the assistance to the country's economic and social development, so as to improve Palestine's ability of self-helping. Palestine and Israel should seize every opportunity to dredge channels, promote cooperation, and consolidate the basis of peace and harmony. Chen Xiaodong stressed that China supports the establishment of an independent State of Palestine with full sovereignty, taking the 1967 borders as the basis and East Jerusalem as its capital.
Representatives of Palestine and Israel thanked China for holding this symposium on the occasion of the current stagnation of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and the recurrence of disturbance over the status of Jerusalem, highly appreciated President Xi Jinping's four-point proposal on settling the Palestine-Israel issue and China's long-term efforts in pushing forward the settlement of the Palestine-Israel issue, and welcomed China to play a greater role in the Middle East peace process.