China’s Rising Diplomatic Power, by Ted Snider

U.S. State Department types disparage efforts like China’s as “soft power,” but it looks like that soft power has made China a lot of worthwhile friends, particularly in the Middle East. From Ted Snider at libertarianinstitute.org:

The United States is working hard to create a global narrative of itself as the leader of a generational struggle to advance democracy, peace, and international law and push back the forces of autocracy, aggression, and erosion of the rule of law.

The facts look strangely different than the fiction. While the U.S. is energetically working to inhibit diplomacy and exploit conflict to advance its own economic and hegemonic interests, China, one of the arch villains of the American narrative, is pushing diplomacy.

The U.S. is blocking diplomacy in Ukraine, declining to push diplomacy in Gaza, and exploiting a security arrangement in the larger Middle East that preserves antagonism between the two great powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Meanwhile, China is brokering diplomacy in all three.

Since 2006, there has been a split between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. Neither Palestinians nor peace talks have benefitted from that split, and past attempts to heal it have failed. But, on July 23, China brokered an agreement between Hamas and Fatah on a “national unity” government. The parties agreed to govern the Gaza strip together once the war with Israel is over. They further agreed to declare unity during the war and establish a unified leadership that would run in the next elections.

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